News

Global Development Summit & Research Meeting January 2013

A delegation from the University of Ulster including Prof Roy McConkey, Dr Gareth Davidson and Liz Carlin recently attended the inaugural Global Development Summit and Research Meeting held at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea as part of the Global Student and Scholars delegation.

(Picture - Prof. Roy McConkey, Janelle Nanavati Director of Research & Evaluation, Special Olympics International, Liz Carlin University of Ulster PhD Student and Dr Gareth Davidson, Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster.)

Professor McConkey chaired an interesting panel discussion on Monitoring Development Outcomes in Sport and Health Programs at the research meeting which was attended by experts from the fields of health, law, education and research. Liz had been invited to present her PhD work on Investigating Volunteer Management and Motives within Special Olympics as part of the Student Delegation. The event raised many discussion points regarding the direction of future research involving people with Intellectual Disabilities and was well received by all.

 

SOEE RRCC Members speak at EUCAPA Conference - 8 May 2012

The Regional Collaborating Centre was represented at the EUCAPA European Congress held in Killarney between the 6-8 May 2012.  David Hassan and Sandra Dowling  presented findings from the recently completed study ‘Special Olympics Athletes and the World Games Experience’.  Liz Carlin scoped out plans around her PhD study at the University of Ulster , which is focused on volunteerism in Special Olympics.  The papers were well received and stimulated a number of interesting questions and observations as well as lively discussions after the sessions.

Ben Fitzpatrick of the University of Ulster who presented a poster describing his PhD work.

‘Putting practice based research into action.’

The team also connected with Ben Fitzpatrick of the University of Ulster who presented a poster describing his PhD work looking at social and physiological outcomes for young people with intellectual disabilities who are undertaking a Duke of Edinburgh award.
Overall the conference was well attended, bringing together practitioners, teachers and academics from across Europe around the central theme of ‘Putting practice based research into action.’
The conference was a good opportunity for the team from Ulster to network with colleagues and to connect in person with members of the collaborating centre  from across Europe.