Trinity’s Children’s Research Centre Celebrates 15 Year Anniversary

Posted on: 23 December 2010

Celebrating the 15th anniversary of Trinity’s Children’s Research Centre, Provost Dr John Hegarty, opened a poster symposium where current and former staff and students, funders and supporters of the Centre gathered to celebrate this event, which was sponsored by the Trinity Trust.

The Children’s Research Centre conducts research oriented towards policy and practice that aims to make a positive difference in the lives of children and young people in Ireland. Its work has been published in over 60 reports and many academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles.

The Centre was established as a joint initiative of the then Department of Psychology and the Department of Social Studies (now the School of Psychology and the School of Social Work and Social Policy) in 1995.  It emerged at a time of unprecedented development in Irish policy, law and services for children. This provided a stimulating context and a challenging opportunity for the Centre to contribute to thinking about, and provision for, children and young people. The work of the Centre has been assisted by support from philanthropic, public sector, non-governmental and private sector sources.

Children’s Research Centre Staff

Co-founders of the Children’s Research Centre, Professor Sheila Greene, School of Psychology and Professor Robbie Gilligan, Head of School of Social Work and Social Policy now serve as Director and Associate Director respectively of the Centre. Professor Greene holds the AIB Chair of Childhood Research, co-endowed by The Atlantic Philanthropies and Allied Irish Banks.

From its earliest days one of the Centre’s main goals was to increase capacity for childhood research in Ireland. Thirteen of the Centre’s former staff and students now hold lectureships in third level institutions in Ireland and abroad. Sixteen former staff and students hold research, clinical and policy posts. There are 14 doctoral students in the Centre at present, six of whom are participating in the new structured PhD in Child and Youth Research (run in collaboration with NUIG).

Today the Centre is currently engaged in 10 projects ranging from the evaluation of the Early Learning Initiative in the Dublin Docklands to the study of youth homeless pathways to the study of the school experience of immigrant children. The largest current project is Growing Up in Ireland, a government funded ESRI-TCD programme, which is led by the Children’s Research Centre for Trinity.