Prof Geraldine Boylan is Professor of Neonatal Physiology, Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, University College Cork and Director of the INFANT Research Centre (www.infantcentre.ie ) – the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research, based in CUH and UCC, Lead In4kids.

She has worked in clinical neurophysiology for many years and since 1996 has worked exclusively in the field of neonatal neurophysiology. 

She leads the Neonatal Brain Research Group at the INFANT centre – a multidisciplinary research team focused on neuromonitoring for infants in the neonatal intensive care unit, particularly for seizure detection and the early diagnosis of brain injury. Her team uses AI to develop automated systems for newborn seizure detection and brain health assessment.  She is also focused on developing better medicines and medical devices for children and is the Irish lead for the conect4children Stichting (c4c-S) Pan European clinical trials network (www.conect4children.org) and lead of In4kids, the Health Research Board’s Irish Network for Children’s Clinical Trials (www.in4kids.ie) 

Professor Eleanor Molloy is Professor and Chair of Paediatrics at Trinity College Dublin. She is also a Consultant Neonatologist & Paediatrician at: Coombe Women and Infant’s University Hospital, National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.

She is co-director of the Trinity Research in Childhood centre (TRICC: https://www.tcd.ie/tricc/), the Neonatal and  Children’s Brain consortium Ireland (NBCI: http://nbci.ie/) and the Irish Children’s clinical trials network (In4kids: https://in4kids.ie/).

Her research interests include improving management of children with neonatal brain injury and neonatal encephalopathy (NE), Down syndrome (DS) and cerebral palsy (CP). The Molloy lab works on targeting persistent dysregulated inflammation for biomarkers and therapy in children with NE, preterm infants, CP and DS.

Internationally, she has served as the Secretary & President of the Irish American Paediatric Society and as the Irish representative on the European Board of Paediatrics, European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), Confederation of European Specialists in Paediatrics (CESP). Currently, she is a Board member of the European Society for Paediatric Research, Newborn Brain Society and associate Editor in Chief of the Pediatric Research journal.

Prof Susa Benseler is a pediatrician, and pediatric rheumatologist, who trained in Germany and Canada. She provided care for children with rare inflammatory diseases at the Children’s Hospitals in Freiburg and Bonn, Germany and Sickkids Toronto and the Alberta Children’s Hospital University of Calgary, Canada. Susa is a Clinical Researcher trained in Immunology and Clinical Epidemiology. She joined Children’s Health Ireland in March 2024 and is serving as the Chief Academic Officer, a role jointly enabled by CHI and its Dublin partner universities UCD, TCD, RCSI and DCU. In her role, she aims to advance all-island cross-sectoral partnerships and integrate care and research for optimal child health outcomes in Ireland and beyond.

Gwynne Morley is Site Lead & General Manager, IQVIA Ireland​

Gwynne joined IQVIA in July 2018. Prior to joining IQVIA, Gwynne was the General Manager of the Heart & Vascular, Diabetes & Emergency Department at the Mater Private Hospital. She is the former Managing Director at Uniphar Retail Services. Previously she worked for United Drug Group (UDG) Healthcare for 13 years. During her tenure with UDG, Gwynne was a member of the Senior Executive team and she held a number of senior roles namely in pre-wholesale, consumer, homecare and quality.​

Gwynne is a qualified pharmacist with extensive experience and knowledge of the Irish pharmaceutical and consumer industry, from the manufacturer to the patient/customer​

Prof Pauline Frizelle is a Professor at University College Cork and a former speech and language therapy manager, with over 15 years’ experience working with children with a wide range of speech, language and communication needs. In 2008 she was the first speech and language therapist in Ireland to be awarded the Health Research Board (HRB) fellowship for the therapeutic professions. In 2015 she was awarded an ASSISTid Marie Curie Fellowship to begin the development of an electronic assessment of complex syntax at the University of Oxford. She has since built on this work through a HRB lead investigator award, comparing assessment methodologies and developing a robust and engaging assessment of complex syntax. 

Pauline is particularly interested in collaborative research projects with clinicians in the community and in the development of robust, theoretically- driven interventions. She has led the development of the language through music programme for children with Down syndrome and continues to work towards optimal use of key word signing in schools. Pauline is the recipient of a 1.3 million Definitive Intervention Feasibility award (DIFA), to complete a full definitive randomised control trial on the Happy Talk programme, for children from areas of social disadvantage, and a 2.5 million award to lead a programme of research to develop consensus on reporting guidelines to be used in language intervention studies, for children with or at risk for Developmental Language Disorder (D)LD. 

Lily Collison is a globally recognised advocate for individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) whose work has significantly impacted the field of CP research and healthcare. Motivated by her son Tommy’s diagnosis of spastic diplegia, Lily has been dedicated to improving outcomes for those affected by CP. She has played a pivotal role in securing funding for CP initiatives in Ireland, establishing three major research hubs at leading universities and helping to revolutionise the landscape of CP care in the country.

Lily is the author of Spastic Diplegia–Bilateral Cerebral Palsy, a groundbreaking resource for families and healthcare professionals and co-author of Pure Grit: Stories of Remarkable People Living with Physical Disability. These books not only provide critical insights into disability, but all proceeds support research.

Her first book led to the Gillette Children’s Healthcare Series, a collection of nine books focused on childhood-acquired physical and neurological conditions. The first six books in the series, were launched this week in Dublin and London. The six include books on three types of CP, Scoliosis, Epilepsy, and Craniosynostosis. Each book provides a detailed medical explanation of the condition and the evidence-based, best-practice treatments and includes the lived experience of families. The goal of the series is to empower families and help optimize outcomes for those living with these conditions. Healthcare professionals and others also benefit from reading books in this series.

Her leadership extends to her role on the board of the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, where she has been instrumental in advancing global CP research initiatives. Lily’s advocacy has led to transformative partnerships, including a significant collaboration with University College Cork that established the ELEVATE Programme to improve early detection and treatment of brain injury and CP.

Prof Veronica Lambert is Full Professor of Children and Family Nursing at Dublin City University where she leads on child and family focused health and wellbeing research with a specific interest in understanding experiences of children and families living with childhood long-term health conditions and children’s palliative care, including health communication, shared self-management responsibilities, and psychosocial wellbeing and illness impact on child and family. Veronica is co-lead of the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) Ignite Network at DCU focusing on building capacity for high quality health and social care research with patients/public and sustainably embedding meaningful PPI in all health and social care research. As part of this Network she recently launched, in collaboration with Barretstown Children’s Charity and Tusla – Child and Family Agency, a resource for ‘ethical collaboration with children and young people in research’. She is also co-Director of DCU REACH Centre and active member of REACH [Research and Engagement across Community Health] Collaboratory Steering Group – a unique Health Service Executive and DCU academic partnership to generate evidence to inform decision-making and policy, in partnership with local communities, and related to community health and wellbeing and services/system development.

Prof Emeritus Mark Turner is a retired Neonatologist with a passion for improving the medicines that are given to babies and children. 

As a Co-Investigator or Principal Investigator in multicentred studies of 14 medicines and 3 excipients, he has examined methods to evaluate drug safety, medicines administration and the costs of off-label medicines. This experience has led him to work with regulators, pharmaceutical and research networks in the UK, Europe and globally to improve the way we do research that involves children In addition, he has contributed to four paediatric investigation plans (two with industry). 

Prof Turner drove the setup of the 20 country pan-European paediatric Clinical Trials Network funded by IMI2, conect4chidren (c4c) and was co-Coordinator of that project with responsibility for the setup and implementation of the network (including the allocation of €25 million funding for clinical trials).   Prof Turner is now the CEO of the c4c non-profit foundation (Stichting) as the transition was made from a grant-funded phase of development to a sustainable organization. 

He contributed to the development of five European research infrastructures and one in the USA. He chaired the European Network of Paediatric Research at the European Medicines Network for six years. He is the European Co-Director of the International Neonatal Consortium, hosted by the Critical Path Institute and funded by the FDA and industry. He was President of the European Society for Developmental, Perinatal and Paediatric Pharmacology 2019 – 2022. 

Prof Michael Barrett, Paediatric Emergency Medicine , Children’s Health Ireland , Women’s and Children’s Health, School of Medicine, University College Dublin  

Michael is a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant at Children’s Health Ireland and Department Head. His Governance roles include the executive Irish lead in the Paediatric Emergency Research UK and Ireland network, chair of the  National Paediatric Mortality Register & the  Irish Association of Emergency Medicine Research Committee. He is a trainer of doctors in General Paediatrics and Emergency Medicine. He is committed to creating and bringing/leading global paediatric research inclusive of paediatric drug trials to Ireland. He has integrated the findings of these studies into local and national guidelines improving care for all children.  

Prof Paul Fleming is a Consultant Neonatologist and Professor in Child Health at Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Children’s Health Ireland and Queen Mary University of London.  He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2000 and trained in general paediatrics in Ireland before completing neonatal fellowships in Melbourne and London.  He completed a PhD on probiotic mechanisms, a Doctor of Medicine in intestinal permeability and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.  He has a special interest in studying patterns of microbial colonisation and immune development in preterm babies.  He was Children’s Research Lead and deputy Clinical Director at the NIHR Clinical Research Network (North Thames) from 2017-2024.  He was recently appointed Chair of Paediatrics at UCD and will take up this post in the second half of 2025.  

Prof Deirdre Murray is a Prof of Paediatrics and Consultant Paediatrician in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Cork University Hospital. In 2023 she took up the role of Chair of Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy, University College Cork. Prof Murray complete her PhD in the area of neonatal hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, supported by the Denis O’Sullivan Research Fellowship award. Prof Murray has a strong research background in newborn brain injury and developmental assessment. She is a founding member and a principal investigator of the INFANT (Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research centre (www.infantcentre.ie). She is the principal investigator of the Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort Study and the BiHiVE study. Through large international studies she has been working to develop new ways to predict newborn brain injury using blood-based biomarkers and early neurological assessment. In 2012 she was awarded a Health Research Board Clinician Scientist Award to study early blood-based biomarkers in hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy(HIE), the BiHiVE2 study. Her group were the first to report the metabolomic profile of newborns with HIE, and quantifying the Amino Acid profiles of infants with HIE to predict MRI abnormalities and outcome. She has completed work on miRNA profiled in HIE and validated these findings in multiple cohorts in both Sweden and Ireland. In 2024 she was co-lead on a 10.7million euro strategic programme award funded by Research Ireland and the CP Foundation to improve prediction and detection of Cerebral Palsy following perinatal brain injury.  

Mandy Daly is a parent of a preterm infant, the founder of the collaborative multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform, The Irish Neonatal Health Alliance (www.inha.ie) and a EUPATI Fellow and Tutor.  

She has collaborated on several neonatal and pediatric health system reviews and clinical audits, developed health registries, has experience in clinical audit, health technology assessment, reviewing obstetric, neonatal and bereavement clinical guidelines and developing and delivering curricula and continued education for medical, nursing, pharmacy, allied health professional and patient expert students. She serves on the board of PPI Ignite Network and the NIDCAP Federation International Board and has worked as patient collaborator and embedded patient researcher on over 80 national and international research studies including developing several Core Outcome Sets. 

She is a chair committee member of group that developed the European Standards of Care For Newborn health, a public reviewer for the Irish Health Research Board and the British Medical Journal Open Pediatrics and a member of the National Office of Research Ethics Clinical Trials Committee. She also works with the EMA and the Health Products Regulatory Authority of Ireland and has published papers in several peer reviewed journals.