Professor Schmitt urges people to send their ideas to the Creating Our Future campaign

The campaign is looking to establish how research can help “meet the opportunities and challenges facing our society” over the coming years

Last week, Professor Wolfgang Schmitt, Dean and Vice-President for Research at Trinity, welcomed the launch of the Creating Our Future campaign, and urged more individuals to submit their ideas before the closing date of November 30 . 

In July of this year, the government launched the campaign, which is meant to gather ideas from people all over the country on the future of research and academia in Ireland. This project, as explained by Schmitt, has “engaged multiple communities on how research can meet the opportunities and challenges facing us”. 

“To date, more than 7,000 submissions have been received,” Schmitt continued. 

When launched in July, the Creating Our Future campaign was framed as an “opportunity for everyone in Ireland to give ideas on how to make our country better for all”. The campaign has welcomed ideas from areas such as science, the environment, health and education to poverty, the arts, diversity and inclusion, with the goal to “inspire researchers to help make a better future for Ireland”. 

The campaign is looking to establish how research can help “meet the opportunities and challenges facing our society” over the coming years. 

In a press release this week, Professor Schmitt said: “I welcome this innovative approach to promoting a national dialogue on research.” 

“I am delighted that Professor Linda Hogan is serving as Chair of the Expert Committee and Professor Luke O’Neill is one of the campaign’s Ambassadors,” he continued.

“Trinity’s ‘Community and Connection’ Strategy and our Research Charter commits the university to core principles on standing up for research and engaging profoundly with our publics, benefiting our students, Ireland and the world.”

“We value a diverse and inclusive research community.”

Trinity’s “Community and Connection” Strategic Plan, setting out College’s goals and ambitions for the next five years, was officially launched on 10 March 2020.

The plan discusses targets in areas like sustainable growth, increasing student numbers while lowering the student-staff ratio, and increasing the number of postgraduates and capital projects.

Schmitt encouraged students and staff to engage with the project and submit ideas to the Creating Our Future campaign website, as the submission window’s final days approach.

Each idea or suggestion will be compiled, filtered, and categorised by independent experts, including many of our colleagues, from a broad range of backgrounds,” Schmitt explained. 

A panel of research experts is then set to review all ideas sent in, and to prepare a report for government review. The government is expected to receive this report in March 2022. 

“If you would like to contribute your idea, please visit https://creatingourfuture.ie/submit-your-idea/ before midnight on the 30 November 2021,” Schmitt urged.

“I hope you will take a moment to engage with this campaign and to use your voice to inform research policy in the years to come,” Schmitt continued. “Please do share your ideas for what researchers in Ireland should explore in order to create a better future.”

Shannon Connolly

Shannon Connolly is the Editor-in-Chief of the 69th volume Trinity News, and a Senior Sophister student of English Literature and Philosophy. She previously served as Deputy Editor, News Editor and Assistant News Editor.