Vertically Integrated Projects

‌The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program is a transformative approach to enhancing higher education by engaging undergraduate and graduate students in long-term, large-scale, multidisciplinary project teams that are led by faculty.

"Vertically Integrated" refers to VIP team compositions, which can include undergraduate, postgraduate (taught) and research students in addition to University staff.  As of 2022 NUI Galway became the only Irish univeristy to join the VIP Consortium, led by Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Through VIPs, students work in teams with faculty to address grand challenges. Students earn credits and can participate in multiple semesters, with returning students taking on additional leadership/project responsibilities.  

VIP FAQs

What is a VIP?

What does a VIP involve for Principal Investigators (PIs)?

• Proposing a long-term research project that undergraduate students can work on over successive semesters
• Recruiting a team of at least 5 undergraduates
• Tailoring the work to the students skills and the PI's project goals
• Dedicating 6 hours per semester (split between the VIP PIs) for fortnightly one-hour meetings with the team
• Setting students work on a specific task (research proposal, review, video, podcast)

Who can Apply?

How to Apply

If you are interested in proposing a VIP, please fill out the Expression of Interest form 

Further Queries

Dr Denis O’Hora, Director of the MSc in Consumer Psychology, Designing Futures VIP Champion 

denis.ohora@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Oonagh Meade, Lecturer in Transdisciplinary Research, Designing Futures

oonagh.meade@universityofgalway.ie

Univeristy of Galway VIPs

Bench to Bedside

PI: Dr Sinéad King

College: College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies

Sustainable innovation in smaller enterprises

PI: Dr Sinéad Mitchell; Dr Gesche Kinderman, Dr Sheila Malone and Dr David Kreps

Colleges: College of Business, Public Policy and Law; College of Science and Engineering

The project involves engaging directly with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and will allow the students to develop their consultation and analysis skills through engagement with a practical step-by-step process with owner-managers. This will be done through the application and enhancement of a framework to engage with SMEs towards their organisational advancement in sustainability. There will be opportunities for students to engage in four steps of the project. Step 1: A Sustainability capability diagnostic interview and on site visit. Step 2: The selection of appropriate tools. Step 3: The application of various tools Step 4: Review the data and re-assess the company. It is expected that the students will learn the skills and tools to engage effectively with SME owner managers in a systems approach, leading an organisation to advance in business sustainability maturity.

Democratizing Knowledge through Comedy

Worlds of Sound

PI: Dr Denis O’Hora & Dr Eoin King

Colleges: College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies & College of Science and Engineering

This VIP explores the physics of sounds, our subjective experiences of sounds and our responses to sounds. We are particularly interested in investigating environmental sounds, how they promote or inhibit wellbeing and the role our experience of sound plays in these effects. Some sounds help us relax, but some distract and annoy. We are particularly interested in the sounds of traffic, wind turbines, the waves and different forms of music. We also hope to identify Zones of Tranquillity in our cities. The work of this VIP will feed into an international research initiative coordinated by the IEA (international Energy Agency), in which Dr King and Dr O’Hora are collaborating with world leading researchers to accelerate the development and deployment of quiet wind turbine technology and consolidate understanding of wind turbine sound emission, propagation, and ultimately its perception by residents. Student opportunities include developing focus group discussions, ethics applications, research proposals, recruitment, mapping sound experiences, press releases, testing apps, videos, podcasts, and blogs.

www.iea-wind.org/task39

Figuring Out Y

PI: Dr Emma Holian

College: College of Science and Engineering

Figuring Out Y is an initiative aimed at improving community engagement and education in STEM with particular emphasis on numeracy and mathematics proficiency through local environment application. The initiative has a number of distinct strands of focus. The project offers; 1) opportunity for community engagement promoting awareness of numeracy applications in the local environment and every-day life, through the design and management of social community events, such as “Hidden Figures Hunt”, 2) identification and promotion of numeracy integrated in literature, in particular children’s literature, 3) opportunity to contribute to pedagogical research in numeracy education at primary, second and third-level, with particular focus on disadvantaged cohorts.

Theatronomics: the business of theatre, 1732-1809

PI: Prof David O'Shaughnessy, Dr Aidan Kane

Colleges: College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies, College of Business, Public Policy, & Law

Literary studies have largely steered clear of eighteenth-century theatre financial archives due to their complexity and magnitude. However, account books and ledgers contain valuable data about ticket sales, audience members, revenues, actor salaries etc., which have much to tell us about the constraints on cultural production.

The EU-funded THEATRONOMICS interdisciplinary team of economists and theatre historians will study this data using financial analysis sensitive to the particular contexts of the period. The project will analyse manuscript data from the two major London theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. By applying innovative econometric methods and utilising the tools of digital humanities on rich transatlantic archives, THEATRONOMICS will reveal a new perspective on theatrical culture in the eighteenth century. There will be opportunities for students to develop case-study material (e.g. for blogs), to fact-check, to showcase econometric methodologies for cultural history, and to conduct new research about the lives of actors, playwrights and theatre workers.

cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101001052

Theia Eye Care

PI: Ms Sinead Murray, Dr Adnan Elahi, Mr Prateek Dixit

Institute: Lambe Institute for Translational Research

The Theia Eye Care project aims to create a medical device to treat Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD), which is the leading cause of Dry Eye Disease. Our target market is the US, where 13 million citizens are diagnosed with this condition. Creating a medical device requires a multidisciplinary approach. Skills such as engineering, business, psychology, marketing, IT, amongst others are required to help develop this device. We are excited to share our knowledge with enthusiastic students looking to apply their college learnings to our research project.

Songs of Travel

PI: Dr Liz Coleman, Dr Eoghan Clifford

College: College of Science and Engineering

Songs of Travel (SOT) is a transnational project which will use music to raise awareness and create empathy towards climate change and migration. The project involves the development and implementation of a sustainable model of operation for specialised classical music festivals and to improve access to and circulation of contemporary classical music.

4 classical music festivals from Holland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden and an Austrian boutique game development studio are partnering to co-commission and present 5 new artistic works on the theme of migration. Research will be conducted into attitudes towards sustainability in the music world. An educational resource will be created to support engagement with contemporary classical music and to highlight themes of migration and social inclusion.

The overall outcome of SOT will be increased awareness and empathy towards climate change and migration, increased longevity for new works of music, research-supported sustainable models for music festivals and raised profiles of the cultural heritage of migrants. Students will have the opportunity to get involved in developing green policy for partner music festivals, public dissemination of results from emission modelling study (e.g. through social media, infographics, videos etc.) and reports and evaluations of behaviour change workshops. 

The Songs of Travel (SOT) project is funded by the Creative Europe Programme under the European Cooperation Projects call. Project partners are Music for Galway (Ireland, Lead Partner), Valdres Sommersymfoni (Norway), Fairplay Chamber Music (Sweden), Keys to Music Foundation (The Netherlands), and Causa Creations (Austria). 

Critical Element Supply Management

PI: Prof Piet Lens, Dr Juan Castilla-Archilla, Dr Amitap Khandelwal

College: College of Science and Engineering 

In the search for developing an economy that uses only raw materials and feedstocks that are renewable, rather than depending on and depleting finite resources like the critical elements, this VIP project will have a technological and a management component. In the technical component, fundamental research on the bioavailability and toxicity of critical metals is accompanied by applied research on (bio)leaching of these critical elements from secondary ores (e.g. spent catalysts, batteries, metallurgical slags and e-waste) and how these can then most optimally be recovered. Some of these technologies can also be used for the protection of the environments, where acid rock drainage from abandoned mines contains elevated metal concentrations that requires an intervention to protect the downstream human settlements and ecosystems.

In the management component, geopolitical, Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) aspects and mining risks will be investigated. We investigate how the primary risk of the geographical concentration of where the mining and, in particular, the processing is being done can be minimised. Zero carbon mining as well as other environmental and social aspects require scrutiny. Consumers want to know how the materials they consume are sourced. The project will investigate how standardisation and certification of green and sustainable mining can be achieved.

www.universityofgalway.ie/ietsbio3/

Data and Artificial Intelligence for the Knowledge Society

PI: Prof Ed Curry

College: College of Science and Engineering 

According to UNESCO, “knowledge societies are about capabilities to identify, produce, process, transform, disseminate and use information to build and apply knowledge for human development. They require an empowering social vision that encompasses plurality, inclusion, solidarity and participation. The need for continuous learning is a general characteristic of the knowledge society and the capacity for each individual to learn throughout life is crucial.” The research that is being carried out at University of Galway’s Data Science Institute (DSI) uses data and artificial intelligence to drive knowledge society vision. This project offers the opportunity for students to explore, understand and reframe this research in a way that makes it more understandable to a non-technical audience. Student opportunities include interviewing key data science PIs, understanding data science research and it’s multidomain application potential and the creation of a portfolio of videos, podcasts and other media. Students also get the opportunity to work with experienced public engagement professionals on the creation of this novel content and material.

www.universityofgalway.ie/dsi/

Futures of Law: Robots or Humans?

PI: Dr Rónán Kennedy and Dr Abigail Rekas

College: College of Business, Public Policy and Law

The use of digital technology for legal work (known as ‘lawtech’) is enabling new approaches to legal practice and the development of new business models for law firms. These digital innovations can enable increased efficiencies in legal work, as well as lower costs for clients and service users. It is also changing the skillset required by people working in the legal industry. These changes give rise to concerns that skilled professional work is increasingly casualized, subject to insufficient regulation and quality control, and subject to being off-shored to lower-cost locations in the developing world. Recent developments in technology have even led to the speculation that lawyers, judges and even legislators could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) and that the legal professions might be reduced to tending machines or disappear altogether.

Although extensively researched, due to the rapid development of technological capabilities, the area is still under-theorised, particularly for jurisdictions outside the United States and the United Kingdom. In Ireland, for instance, there is very little concrete information available, and there is almost no peer-reviewed literature specific to this jurisdiction. 

This project involves undergraduate, postgraduate (taught) and research students developing an essential knowledge basis on law tech, data analytics, AI and other recent innovations in the legal industry around the world. These students will apply this knowledge to research key topics such as potential pitfalls or opportunities in access to justice, the digital divide, and algorithmic equality. 

It would be of particular interest to students in law, business, or information technology/information systems degrees, but would also welcome anyone with an interest in social justice, economic opportunities, or historic change.

Cardiovascular Health for All

PI: Dr Oonagh Meade, Dr Lisa Hynes & Dr Anne Browne

College: College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies

Community Partner: Croí Heart and Stroke Charity

The Cardiovascular Health for All is a partnership between the Health Behaviour Change Research Group and Croí Heart and Stroke Charity. The project aims to support the development and evaluation of community-based health interventions at Croí. The aim of these interventions are to prevent cardiovascular disease and to promote health and well-being for those living with cardiovascular disease. Developing and evaluating interventions to support people with cardiovascular disease requires input from people working from many different disciplines (e.g. physiotherapy, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, medicine). Students on this project will gain experience in a wide range of research activities, including working with the Croí Patient and Public Involvement group to shape research plans, collecting and analysing information for pilot health interventions, sharing research with academic and non-academic audiences.

https://www.universityofgalway.ie/hbcrg; https://croi.ie

Understanding Minds

PI: Dr Jane Conway

College: College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies

Students will join the Understanding Minds Lab in the School of Psychology. Our social cognition research focuses on understanding how the mind processes social information and we study this using an experimental approach. We investigate how our minds build models of the social world, how these models can vary across cultures and individuals, and how this process can go awry in neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders including schizophrenia, autism, and bipolar disorder. As part of this group, students can participate in the design and programming of experiments, data collection and analysis, literature reviewing and hypothesis generation, and outreach activities including a mental health art exhibition.