9plus

For the first episode of the new series, we’re talking about the Portalis pilot project,  led by SETU Humanities, which finished up in September 2023. Portalis mapped the story of the earliest connections between Ireland and Wales, dating back to the Mesolithic period (~10,000 years ago). The project explored how those first settlers adapted to their surroundings in order to survive and sought to understand whether there are any parallels with how we can adapt to climate change now. 

Rob O’Connor spoke with project members Denise O’Meara and Jody Power in studio, while also including a conversation with geoarchaeology specialist Joseph Shuldenrein in New York. 

For more information on the project and its outputs, please visit portalisproject.eu. Portalis, €1.95m, supported by €1.5m from the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme. 

PURE is a new Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) that has been rolled out in SETU. Anyone writing a funding proposal or managing a research project will be interacting with this system. Susie Cullinane and Jonathan Brazil from the Research Support Unit (RSU) sat down with Rob O'Connor to discuss what PURE is, why it's being used and the benefits it will bring to researchers. The conversation also turned to related topics such as Open Access Research.

For more information on PURE and the Research Support Unit, please visit the Research at SETU landing page http://setu.ie/research

Can you turn fish waste into something useful? Yes - by combining biochemistry and engineering! Adriana Cunha Neves and David Culliton talk about their work in creating sustainable bio-degradable plastics from the waste materials of other products, including fish, brewer's grain, leather and more.

You can learn more about Adriana by visiting her profile on the SETU website. You can read more about David or get in contact, by checking out his profile. You can learn more about host Rob O'Connor here. Follow the podcast on Twitter @9pluspodcast

Microscopic nematodes! Soil ecology! Environmental Science! Aristotle! It's all in in here, as Dr. Thomae Kakouli-Duarte spoke with Rob O'Connor about her professional career to date, starting out studying crop production in Greece, obtaining a post-grad in the UK and now the director of enviroCORE at SETU Carlow. Thomae's enthusiasm for science and environment is profoundly obvious as she brings the subjects to life during the podcast. You'll come away appreciating the importance of those tiny flatworms - nematodes.

You can learn more about Thomae and her work by viewing her profile on the SETU website.

In this episode, musician and SETU lecturer Mark Graham talks with Rob O’Connor about ethics in the music industry. Mark’s research into this topic is tying together his extensive experience as a professional musician and his academic role at SETU. During the podcast, Mark lays out some common music business practices that could be deemed unethical. Mark is currently researching towards a PhD, with a provisional title of “Moving Towards Ethical and Sustainable Music Industry Practice.”

If you want to learn more about Mark’s work, you can listen to his Irish Music Industry podcast which is available on most podcasting platforms. You might also like to catch up with King Kong Company, the band he used to play with. Their channel on YouTube contains a lot of videos of their work and the band's music is available on most streaming platforms. You can catch up with Mark on Twitter @IreMusPod. Follow 9plus on Twitter @9pluspodcast

This episode of 9plus has been produced as companion piece for an upcoming special collection issue of the Journal of Research in Nursing which will focus on ‘Nursing during difficult times’. The podcast is a collaboration between staff and postgraduate students of SETU and Glasgow Caledonian University, in which they talk about how their PhD research was impacted by the COVID pandemic, how their Nursing & Health-related studies were forced to adapt and what lessons might be learned if another untoward event were to occur. The panel is comprised of Mark White, Patricia Hunt, Teresa Dowling (SETU) and Gordon Hill, Matilde Pieri and Ciara Marie Ryan (GCU).

For more information on the Journal of Research in Nursing, please visit https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jrn

Two researchers from the designCORE group based on the SETU Carlow campus, sat down with Rob O'Connor to discuss the general topic of "design." What is design? Why is it important? How does it impact on research projects? What about the field of design research itself? PJ White and Brian Casey bring the conversation to life through their clear communication and obvious enthusiasm for the field. An enlightening conversation that could benefit a researcher in any discipline.

Learn more about the designCORE group at designcore.ie. PJ White is on Twitter @pjwhitedesign and Brian Casey can be found on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/brian-casey-16810b66

Follow 9plus on Twitter at twitter.com/9pluspodcast. You can find Rob O’Connor on Twitter twitter.com/roboconnor_irl or on Mastodon mastodon.ie/@roboconnor

SETU’s Vice President of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Allison Kenneally and Susan Flynn (Head of Dept. of Arts) join Rob O'Connor to talk about the topic of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in research and university practice. They talk about the importance of EDI with respect to gaining a wider perspective on research works, as well as the role EDI plays in funding applications. They discuss their own careers to date and outline how an EDI lens frames their work. In her role as VP for EDI, Allison offers a unique perspective on these matters. Also, Susan discusses a book she recently edited “Equality in the City: Imaginaries of the Smart Future” which is a collection of academic essays that seeks to engender debate as to how future cities will operate from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The book is available as an open access publication via OAPEN. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/59174

Follow 9plus on Twitter at twitter.com/9pluspodcast. You can find Rob O’Connor on Twitter twitter.com/curlybert or on Mastodon mastodon.ie/@roboconnor

Prof. John Nolan is the founder and chair of the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland (NRCI based in Waterford. His research group studies the role of nutrition in vision health and the prevention of blindness, particularly around age-related macular degeneration which is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. John spoke candidly about his research ambitions, the groups of people working with him and his plans for the future, John also offered some excellent insights into research as a career path (and the drawback that also entail). 

You can learn more about the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland at nrci.ie. John keeps a personal page at profjohnnolan.com. For more information about the 9plus podcast, please contact Rob O'Connor via any of the usual channels. You can also find the podcast on Twitter @9pluspodcast

SETU researchers Dr. Una Kealy and Dr. Kate McCarthy have been involved in research around early 20th century Irish playwright and author Teresa Deevy or some time. Most recently, they are running a project Lyrical Bodies which involves a collaboration with visual artist Amanda Coogan and the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf. Dr. Jenny O'Connor is involved with the project in her capacity as a maker of digital stories, a relatively new medium through which research outputs are disseminated. The podcast gives an overview of Deevy's life and times, her struggles as a feminist writer in early 20th century Ireland and her experiences as a deafened artist. The panel also discuss the Lyrical Bodies project and how that collaboration came about.

This podcast also dovetails with a Mind the Gap Films documentary about Teresa Deevy featuring Amanda Coogan and the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf, which was partly shot in SETU and includes contributions from Una, Kate and Jenny. "Tribute: The Teresa Deevy Story" is broadcast on RTE television on Thursday 10th November 2022 at 10.15pm and will be available on the RTE Player afterwards.

This podcast is also a fist attempt by the SETU podcast team to create a Deaf-accessible podcast. A multi-camera video of the studio recording of the podcast is available (with captions) and another video with an Irish Sign Language (ISL) overlay. A full text transcription of the podcast is also available. 

Links:

Captioned Video: https://youtu.be/sZUrYTbO0UE

Video with ISL translation: https://youtu.be/5G2C4G_rsXo 

Full text transcription: https://bit.ly/3UvTxfY