Information & Communication Studies - Research

Our Values

Our staff and students have studied and worked in many countries and our ways of working represent this academic and personal diversity. We include solo research, small groups, larger teams with other staff in ICS, at UCD and beyond in our research repertoire. Our needs vary with respect to internal and external funding with notable success in national and international funding bids from Irish and European funding agencies, foundations, and the private sector. Our research has a significant impact on academic knowledge transfer and exchange, public communication and engagement, government and enterprise policy and quality of life both nationally and internationally. We publish and present in a range of national and international venues that include conferences, peer-reviewed publications, policy reports, and scholarly blogs.



Through our research, our school is committed to the following core values:

- The importance of our research to education

- The importance of our research for the wider society

- An inclusive, respectful approach

- Participation in a global community of research and education

- Widening research participation

- Adopting a critical research framework

- Ensuring transparency, ethics and accountability



Our staff and students share a further commitment:

- To support and honour different ways of conceptualising, conducting, evaluating, and disseminating research

- To diversity, equity, and inclusion both in the content of our research and our approach to its conduct

- To provide opportunities for students from undergraduate through to early career postdoctoral researchers to participate in research projects, mentoring them through the multiple processes involved

- To advocating for broader ways of thinking about research impact

- To a shared critical approach to information and communication technologies and their increasingly important role in our individual lives and collectively in society.

- To support evidence-based policy-making and policy evaluation in some of the many spheres of influence we inhabit



Our Mission

As we work toward the objectives and actions we wish to achieve, we note that ICS research is:

- Already embedded in the four strategic themes laid out in UCD’s Rising to the Future: Creating a Sustainable Global Society; Transforming through Digital Technology; Building a Healthy World; and Empowering Humanity



- Highly interdisciplinary and integrated into an international research community



- Inclusive and engaged with all sectors of society



- Integrated with education so that our graduates may be equipped with knowledge for successful social participation



- Oriented towards social benefit



This will be achieved by building on our established reputation in Ireland and internationally through:

- Joint research projects, collaborations, and proposals at international level e.g., Horizon Europe, UK-Ireland



- Ranking in both disciplines of Library and Information Management and Media and Communications in the QS rankings



- High impact conference organisation, research exchange schemes and other collaborations



ICS is one of the most multidisciplinary schools at UCD, representing disciplines, topics and approaches from the humanities, social sciences, and STEM. Unique research areas to UCD include Communications, Digital Policy, and Information Science, as well as the highly technologically grounded HCI and Information Systems. The School is uniquely and prestigiously designated as an iSchool, a university-level institution devoted to understanding the role of information in society; ICS is the only iSchool in the country, as well as on the whole of the Island.



The ethos of research in the school is grounded in forward thinking research with a view to influencing development, policy, and regulatory frameworks at domestic and regional levels. The trans-disciplinarity of research in the School is attractive to staff who study multiple research areas and enables them to find a home in Information and Communication Studies.



The School is committed to research that has a social impact. Researchers in the School regularly report on their work via radio, television, and newspaper venues. Additionally, researchers in the School have provided information and advice at Oireachtas committees and have had their research noted in Dáil Éireann. Researchers in the School further offer leadership roles in relevant national and international societies and committees, e.g. the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform’s Open Data Governance Board, and the National Open Research Forum, and are routinely invited to give keynotes at leading events on a range of topics.

Information & Communication Studies (W118) MLitt Research 2 Years FT.

Information & Communication Studies (W139) PhD Research 3 Years FT / 6 Years PT.