The race to succeed Dr Thomas Mitchell, the outgoing Provost of Trinity College Dublin, is one of the tightest for many years with five candidates mounting strong campaigns.
The £100,000-a-year job is one of the most important posts in the university sector. About 520 full-time lecturing staff have a vote and they are being lobbied intensively in the run-up to the March 10th election.
The students' union has 12 votes but it has yet to decide which candidate it will support. Traditionally it supports the candidate who promises the most far-reaching changes.
Last time the university elected its first Catholic in Dr Mitchell, and this time there is the prospect of electing the first woman. Prof Frances Ruane, an economist and former bursar, is one of two front-runners. She is gaining ground on the favourite, Prof John Hegarty, a physicist and dean of research.
She is campaigning on a broadly-based platform and points to her success in raising private finance for Trinity and to her work on student grants and women's issues.
Prof Hegarty remains favourite and his high profile in getting science research money for Trinity is regarded as a major asset.
Also running a strong campaign is another scientist, Prof David McConnell from the department of genetics. An academic with wide experience in and out of Trinity, he has been involved in bodies as varied as Dublin Zoo and the Family Planning Services.
He is expected to gather a lot of votes for his programme of reform. He is president of the Adelaide Hospital and a member of the Irish Times trust.
While the winner is certain to come from these three, two other candidates are fighting strongly for support. Prof Patrick O'Meara, is head of the department of Russian. His manifesto, "Putting People First", is the result of months of consultation with staff, he says.
The final candidate, Dr Micheal Mac an Airchinnigh, is probably the most colourful. Dressing in traditional academic garb, he is a senior lecturer in the computer science department.
A Northerner, he has spent many years teaching in Christian Brothers' primary and secondary schools and is a keen supporter of the Irish language.