Closing the Gaps: Collaborating on voluntary and community sector research in Northern Ireland | NICVA.

Meg Wright |

Some places are still available for this VSSN event taking place in Belfast on Tuesday 25th June 2024, but they are filling up fast.

This is your chance to extend your understanding of the voluntary and community sector (VCS) research landscape in Northern Ireland, build new connections to your own work and potentially shape future collaborations in Northern Ireland.

The Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN), ARK, Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University are collaborating with Volunteer Now and NICVA, to jointly host this symposium. Our keynote speakers will include:

  • John Smith, Deputy Secretary of Community, Places and Local Government Group at the Department for Communities, Northern Ireland, who will be speaking about the Joint Forum between Government and the Voluntary and Community Sector, the role of the sector in supporting delivery of government policy and the link between policy development and research.
  • Jill Cornforth, Grants and Learning Manager, The Ideas Fund, British Science Association, who will be speaking about The Ideas Fund and how it connects communities with researchers to work on mental wellbeing projects

Other contributors will include:

  • Feilim Ó hAdhmaill, University College Cork, and Nick Acheson, Volunteer Now and  Wendy Osborne, IAVE– Reflecting on the foundations of VCS research in Northern Ireland and the need to connect the dots, chaired by Carl Milofsky, Bucknell University, USA
  • Laurence Taggart, Nursing Dept, Ulster University, Dirk Schobutz, Queen’s University and Kate Clifford, Rural Community Network – sharing their insights on Collaborative Research
  • Amy Sanders, VSSN Vice-Chair – Overview of other UK Voluntary Sector Research Networks

The Innovative World Café session will be a chance to visit research collaborative case studies such as:

  • Denise Haywood, Volunteer Nowand Jurgen Grotz, Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR)
  • Martin Mc Mullin, CEO of Youth Action and Dirk Schobutz
  • Dave Wall andShankill Women’s Centre
  • Janet Schofield, Compass Advocacy Network (CAN) and Laurance Taggart

For more information and to register please click on this link.