ProfessorEilish McAuliffe

Eilish McAuliffe is Professor of Health Systems at University College Dublin, and Director of the UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Education and Innovation in Health Systems (IRIS), https://www.ucd.ie/nmhs/research/ucdiriscentre/ The IRIS Centre's research activity is focused on systems and implementation science using participatory and co-design principles. Prof McAuliffe has more than 25 years of experience in health systems research. Her research activity is primarily focused on strengthening health systems. Utilising interdisciplinary approaches to identify problems in existing service provision, particularly in the areas of human resources, organisational change and analysing reform and restructuring in healthcare to identify learning and improve the quality and safety of services is the main focus of her research. She has considerable experience of educating policy makers and managers and has supervised more than 100 postgraduate research students conducting applied research in Irish and international healthcare. She has mentored several postdoctoral researchers, research fellows and academic staff. She established and for a period of 10 years led the Centre for Global Health at Trinity College Dublin, an interdisciplinary research and education centre, conducting health systems research in low and middle-income countries. She developed international research networks and led successful multi-institutional interdisciplinary bids to international funding agencies. She has also led numerous international comparative studies on various aspects of service delivery. Prof McAuliffe has published articles in leading healthcare journals as well as a number of co-edited and co-authored books on healthcare. She holds a B.Sc. Psychology from University College Dublin, an M.Sc. Clinical Psychology from University of London, an MBA from Strathclyde University and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin.
Prof McAuliffe was awarded a Health Research Board Research Leader’s award in 2015. In 2021 she received the Dean's Award for Excellence in doctoral supervision.