ATU shortlisted for four Education Awards

The Education Awards recognise excellence in the third level education sector on the island of Ireland from both State and privately funded institutions. 

Two of the programmes shortlisted are from the School of Nursing based in ATU Donegal, while the other two nominations are for ATU Sligo’s very popular educational outreach programme “Current Chemistry Investigates.” 

The shortlisted programmes are: 

• Best Research Project: The Student Psychological Intervention Trial (SPIT) - ATU Donegal and Ulster University. 
• Best Industry/Business-Academic Collaboration: NCAD - Department of Nursing ATU Donegal, HSE and Axia Digital (Ireland) 
• Best Outreach Award: ATU Sligo's Current Chemistry Investigators (CCI) Project 
• Best Industry/Business-Academic Collaboration: ATU Sligo's Current Chemistry Investigators (CCI) Project 

President of ATU, Dr Orla Flynn congratulated the nominees: "This is a tremendous achievement for ATU. Our team has worked tirelessly to achieve excellence in teaching, collaboration, and outreach, and it is great to see our efforts recognised in this way. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of knowledge and making a positive impact on our communities, and these nominations are a testament to our success.  Congratulations to my colleagues in ATU on this high recognition for their work and commitment." 

The CCI project is an outreach and public engagement partnership between Trinity College Dublin and Atlantic Technological University, Sligo. The project is funded by science foundation Ireland (SFI) through the Discover programme 2021.  

The project aim is to promote and support STEM education using hands-on activities and resources based on real-world applications in the area of green energy storage and analysis. 

Dr Fiona McArdle, Project Coordinator, ATU Sligo welcomed the nomination: “Through ATU Sligo’s collaboration with Trinity College Dublin we can reach a wide range of schools and students from diverse backgrounds. Our team in ATU, Sligo of myself, Yvonne Lang, Mary Connolly, and the postgraduate students have enjoyed the school visits and public engagement events and in so doing have enhanced our awareness of the challenges in science education in the West and Northwest.”  

Dr John O’Donoghue, Project Manager and Trainer, Trinity College Dublin, added; “We are passionate about giving all of our PhD Researchers the opportunity to broaden their CV’s and develop their communication skills. This collaboration encourages extensive networking between both universities, ultimately benefiting everyone involved.”  

Dr Louise McBride, Head of Department of Nursing and Healthcare noted; "These two shortlisted education awards are a true reflection of our team and partners engagement and collaboration in research, industry and clinical practice. Such awards are important recognition for the tireless efforts to continuously strive for excellence in evidence-based practices, research, collaboration, and engagement. The SPIT research project aims to improve student mental health of higher education students by providing evidence-based psychological interventions. The MyCad Eportfolio project collaboration brings together academic, industry and our HSE clinical nursing partners to develop a cutting-edge online access dashboard for nursing students and staff for competence assessment Eportfolio in our nursing education programmes. We are delighted to see our efforts being acknowledged and these nominations are a testament of collaboration, commitment and success of ATU with our University of Ulster, HSE North West Nursing and Axia partners." 

The winners of the awards will be announced at Education Awards ceremony in Dublin on April 27, 2023.