HRB NEPTuNE Scholar Induction Event

HRB NEPTuNE Scholars, from l to r: Tim Hurley, Fiona Quirke, Chelo Del Rosarion, Megan Dibble, Andreea Pavel

HRB NEPTuNE (NBCI’s Neonatal Encephalopathy PhD Training Network) held its scholar induction in Trinity’s Biomedical Science Institute on the 24th and 25th of September 2018.

The programmes’ five scholars, Tim Hurley, Megan Dibble, Chelo Rosario, Fiona Quirke, and Andreea Pavel and their respective supervisors gathered for the Induction Event at TBSI.

The HRB NEPTuNE collaborative training programme which includes expert partners TCD, UCC, NUIG, CRDI and INHA has been established to train the five successful applicants in multidisciplinary research projects in the area of Neonatal Brain Injury. Lead principal investigators, Professors Eleanor Molloy (TCD) and Geraldine Boylan (UCC), welcomed the scholars to the training programme and presented a programme overview highlighting the necessity and importance of the research programmes that the scholars are embarking on.

INHA’s, Mandy Daly, spoke to scholars of her own experience as mother of a pre-term baby and the challenges that face parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She described how, in the last decade, patient focussed research and patient input into care options has evolved and stressed that, while this evolution was impressive, multi-disciplinary approaches such as being offered by HRB NEPTuNE are essential to the continuing improvement of patient care.

NEPTuNE Scholar Fiona Quirke & PPI Represeantative Paul Ryan

Gael Parent (CRDI) and Beth Corcoran, NEPTuNE programme manager, from CRDI, explained that the student-centred NEPTuNE programme is designed to enhance, improve and directly engage the student in relevant research skills. Scholars will avail of the exceptional bank of training resources that are being made available to them through CRDI. These resources will support the scholars throughout the lifecycle of the programme and they include a tailored NEPTuNE Curriculum, SkillsLog, a schedule of Study Days and a Moodle portal.

Each of the Principal Investigators, Prof Arun Bokde (NEON), Prof Declan Devane (COHESION), Prof Eleanor Molloy (CRADLE), Prof Geraldine Boylan (SERENdiPITY) and Prof Elizabeth Nixon (PANDA) gave a presentation on their respective PhD Projects. These presentations provided a forum for questions that again gave scholars an insight into what each of them would be researching. For further info on each of theses project, please click here.

A broad range of academic modules are offered through the NEPTuNE Curriculum. CRDI has brought together a collection of appropriate modules that are available through TCD, UCC, NUIG, UCD and CRDI giving scholars an opportunity to access modules that are offered both in their own academic institution and in other institutions.

The CRDI SkillsLog provides a facility for scholars to track and record transferable skills during the PhD lifecycle. The objective of this excellent facility is to help scholars to develop and record the soft skills that are applicable and critical to their future career paths.

In order to facilitate interaction between the variety of health care disciplines that are the focus of the programme, a schedule of Study Days will be tailored to give the scholars an opportunity to meet regularly and gain insight, through PI presentation, into each other’s core disciplines and project focus. In addition, the Study Day will offer the scholars generic and transferable skills training which will assist them at all stages of the PhD programme. This format is designed to enhance the programme’s patient-focused research that will have a direct impact on patient health and well-being.

The NEPTuNE Moodle platform will provide access to and detail about the training resources as well as providing a forum for document and resource sharing. It will be a dynamic platform that will be regularly updated with relevant information for the five scholars.

Finally, given the area of research involved in each of the projects, and bearing in mind GDPR requirements, data protection is a priority in the programme. To that end, The Infant Centre’s Data Management expert, Mairead Murray and IT Manager, Jerry Deasy, gave detailed presentations on how to consider data management from the early stages in your data collection and how to keep your data safe.

In addition to all of the above, HRB NEPTuNE’s scholars will avail of excellent research resources at partners Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, NUI Galway premier research centres.