Nine Irish researchers to share €12.5m European Research Council funding

A researcher in Galway hopes to give a voice those with intellectual disabilities and so help end the kinds of difficulties experienced in Irish care homes. Dr Eilionóir Flynn wants to empower clients in these homes, giving them a direct involvement in their situation and the care provided for them.

Based in NUI Galway’s centre for disability, law and policy, Dr Flynn has launched a project called Voices which will sample the views of those in care and also experts in areas such as law, psychology and social sciences.

Funding for the project will come via an European Research Council grant of nearly €900,000 to cover the cost of the project over the next 3½ years.

Young researchers

She was one of nine Irish recipients of council grants announced last week worth a combined €12.5 million. Much of this will flow into scientific research in area such as tissue engineering, evolutionary biology and solar energy.

These awards were made under the council's Starting Grants programme targeted at young researchers in the early stages of their careers.

“Voices is a project to make visible the narratives of people with disabilities who have been denied their rights to make decisions because of their being labelled as disabled,” Dr Flynn said.

Brain injuries

This could be people with dementia, brain injuries, mental health problems and other conditions. These are people who often end up in private or state-funded care facilities where they lose their ability to make decisions and must accept the treatments provided for them.

She will select eight such people and match them up with “experts” in law and social sciences who will develop a new approach in conjunction with the individual.

The result will be specific proposals for changes in the person’s experience in care and how it can be improved, she explained.

“These are some of the big areas where people are denied their rights to make decisions,” Dr Flynn said. “This is a way we are trying to create solutions to problems. It will describe how our law and policy should be changed to prevent this happening again.”