The National Institute for Intellectual Disability Director Awarded Major Research Grants

Posted on: 05 March 2007

The Director of the National Institute for Intellectual Disability at TCD, Dr Patricia O’Brien, has been awarded almost €900,000 in funding under the Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge Programme for her research project, Doing disability research: Equal lives for equal people. The NIID director’s project was ranked 1st in Europe in Social Sciences, and overall 2nd among the 329 proposals submitted from all disciplines and from 33 countries.

Dr O’Brien was also recently presented with one of the Interim Health Information and Quality Authority Research Awards for another research project on the development and evaluation of consumer driven standards and monitoring system for use within the disability sector. Commenting on the significance of the IHIQA Research Award, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney said: “This research will inform the Authority’s work of ensuring that world class quality standards are applied in Ireland’s health and personal social services – across the public, private and voluntary sectors.”

The National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) was established at Trinity College to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disability and their families. The NIID promotes lifelong learning for people with intellectual disability through its Certificate in Contemporary Living, an inclusive education programme involving Trinity Staff and Trinity students undertaking professional degrees. It also develops and implements inclusive research practice among other areas.