College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies New Professors’ Inaugural Lecture series

Dean of College, Professor Cathal O’Donoghue will speak on the subject of “Recognising Diversity and Complexity in Policy Formation”.

Professor O’Donoghue has been from 2016, the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at NUI Galway and Professor of Public and Social Policy. Prior to this he was since 2005, Head of Teagasc’s (Irelands Agriculture and Food Development Authority) Rural Economy and Development Programme, one of the 4 research programmes of Teagasc. He was a member of the Fund Council of CGIAR, a $1 billion a year International Agri-Food Research organisation from 2014-2016. From 2012-2014, he was CEO of the Irish Government’s Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas 2012-2014, Chairman of the Irish Sport Horse Strategy Committee 2013-2015, President of the International Microsimulation Association 2011-2015 and is on the Executive of the UK Agricultural Economics Society.

In his inaugural lecture, Professor O’Donoghue will draw upon the results of his research career to date to describe the methodologies he has developed and conclusions he has drawn for policy analysis and design and to reach out to new collaborators in inter-disciplinary research. His research aims to understand how policy impacts across the population, incorporating the breadth of diversity that exists in different population groups. His field of research is in the area of Micro-Simulation Modelling, where for 25 years , he has developed tools to simulate the impact of public policy on Micro distributions (individuals, Families, Farms). Fundamentally these are tools to understand complexity. Policy formation involves understanding complexity via complexity of policy, complexity of population structure and complexity of behavioural response. In addition, other dimensions that can be considered include spatial and temporal complexity. In this lecture, Professor O’Donoghue will discuss how the development of these tools have been used to consider policy questions such as anti-poverty, environmental, labour market, education, agricultural and rural policy. His work is currently focusing on the interaction between land-use change and demographic both in a contemporary setting and in understanding historical land use drivers of demographic changes.

Contact: Dr. Seán Crosson – Sean.Crosson@nuigalway.ie