Policy Briefs

People are interconnected and ill-health is rarely experienced in isolation. For example, the physical and mental strain of ‘caring for’ an ill or disabled relative has been suggested to ‘spillover’, imposing a health- and quality of life-related burden on the caregiver. In addition, the illness experience of an individual is also thought to exert a… | Read on »

Limited uptake of financial incentives, designed to confront global trends of an ageing farming population and low levels of land mobility (i.e. transfer of land from one farmer to another, or from one generation to the next), reveal resistance or at best ambivalence, amongst farmers towards altering existing farm management and ownership structures in later… | Read on »

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many higher education institutions (HEIs) across the world to cancel face-to-face teaching, close campus facilities, and displace staff and students to work and learn from home. Given the persistent nature of the pandemic, and the threat of further waves of the virus, many HEIs continued to deliver courses online… | Read on »

Ireland’s health care system is a unique mix of a publicly-funded health service and a fee-based private system. The distinctive and complex structure of the sector, which involves both public and private financing and delivery of services, has important implications for the allocation of resources and for sustainability. In addition, though Ireland currently has a… | Read on »

Across the island of Ireland, domestic consumption levels have increased dramatically in the past three decades, making sustainable consumption a key challenge for policy makers. To date, public discourse has focused primarily on minimum levels of consumption but there has been a complete dearth of discussion around the concept of maximum levels of consumption. Our… | Read on »

The global population is urbanising rapidly. Each year, cities around the world host tens of millions of new inhabitants, particularly in low and middle income countries. While traditionally urbanisation has been associated with a process of structural change and economic development, today many poor countries are urbanising faster and at a much earlier stage of… | Read on »

Place identity and self-identity create multiple pathways to place attachment and perspectives on the ageing and well-being of older rural women. Two independent studies of 25 rural mid-life women (45-65 years) in Connemara, Ireland (doctoral research, 2017) and ten in Värmland, Sweden (post-doctoral research, 2019) employed a lifecourse framework and constructivist grounded theory to produce… | Read on »

Oceans and Human Health (OHH) is an emerging meta-discipline exploring the complex and inextricable links between the health of the ocean and that of humans. This linkage between ocean health and public health emphasises an urgent need for interdisciplinary cooperation between researchers and decision-makers. A participatory and inclusive approach was advocated and adopted by the… | Read on »

The ocean is under increasing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss, further degradation through human impacts, and other global changes, resulting in unpredictable, uneven and uncertain outcomes for society including varied risks for human health. In response, the EU Horizon 2020 project SOPHIE (Seas and Oceans for Public Health in Europe) asked European citizens: How do… | Read on »

According to the United Nations DESA and ITAR groups, the “multi-stakeholder nature of the 2030 Agenda demands an enabling environment for participation by all, as well as new ways of working in partnerships to mobilize and share knowledge”. Stakeholders, including citizens, and their engagement have never been more important in an increasingly interconnected world, facing… | Read on »