University College Cork has a leading commitment to its Third Mission, societal engagement. It was recently ranked 8th globally in The Times Higher Education Societal Impact Rankings, and was the recipient of the MacJannet Prize for Community Engagement (2019) from the International Talloires Network of Engaged Universities.

University College Cork is a partner in The European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC), an alliance of eight European universities. UNIC’s ambition is to develop innovative and sustainable means of university collaboration that boosts student and staff mobility, while fostering social inclusion and furthering societal impact. https://www.unic.eu/en The UNIC Alliance, recently awarded Horizon 2020 funding for its UNIC4ER initiative, will expand its approach with a focus on European research collaboration based on the concept of ‘Engaged Research’, an umbrella term that describes research approaches that have a common interest in collaborative inquiry with society for impact.  The goal is to develop a common alliance-wide framework and supportive systems for involving and engaging citizens, NGO’s/ CSO’s, public sector and local city authorities in research & innovation.  This will build upon UNIC’s unique strategic advantage as an alliance of research-intensive universities with distinct experience in issues of post-industrial transitions. The overall objective of UNIC4ER is to enhance mobility, inclusion and impact of UNIC’s activities by developing a joint strategy, excellence, structure and platform for engaged research.

UNIC4ER has five specific objectives;

1. Promote the institutional integration of UNIC research policies by developing a UNIC Engaged Research Strategy.
2. Enhance the research underpinning of UNIC’s activities by developing a joint programme of engaged research excellence on post-industrial transitions.
3. Develop an infrastructure for truly European university and city collaboration by developing a UNIC4ER Post-Industrial Transitions Academy as a collaborative engaged research infrastructure between UNIC and our eight post-industrial cities.
4. Promote open knowledge building and sharing on engaged research by developing the UNIC Virtual Campus into an open science resource.
5. Enhance our understanding of the impact of engaged research by systematically monitoring and evaluating the effect of UNIC4ER’s activities on urban transitions and the uptake of engaged research within teaching and research within and beyond UNIC.

The appointee will support the co-ordination and implementation of the Horizon 2020-funded UNIC4ER initiative in UCC, across its five objectives, with a specific focus on Objective 2. The post-holder will be based in UCC Research and will report to the Director of Research Support & Policy. The UNIC4ER initiative is co-directed by the UNIC Director (PI), the Director of Research Support & Policy (Co-PI) and the Head of Civic & Community Engagement (Co-PI).   Read More