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The greatest global challenge of our time is finding sustainable solutions for the world’s growing population, balancing the need for economic development with our limited natural resources. Achieving a balance between people, profit and planet requires us to find equitable and just solutions to the problems of climate change, hunger, poverty and social and health disparities among the world’s populations. The complexity of the global sustainability challenge requires experts from multiple disciplines and sectors to collaborate in new and reimagined ways.
UCC believes that to solve these sustainability challenges, we need creative, inter-disciplinary solutions, driven by an innovative and holistic approach. Through our existing programme of transdisciplinary research, we are generating new knowledge, developing technologies and tools and contributing to services and policies that facilitate a just transition that is economically prosperous and socially inclusive, while protecting our natural environment.
We invite you to join us on the next phase of this important and impactful journey of discovery with UCC Futures - Sustainability.
UCC is recognised nationally and internationally as a leading green University (8th in the Times Higher Education Impact ranking contribution to the SDGs). UCC is ranked 9th globally in the UI Green Metric World University Ranking of sustainable universities and was the first higher education institution in the world to achieve ISO 50001 certification for energy management. In 2018, UCC was the first university outside of North America to be awarded a Gold Star from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. UCC is the only Irish university with official observer membership of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Sustainability
Sustainability is embedded across UCC through its extensive transdisciplinary research and its research informed programmes. The University, as a community, has extensive activity in this area via its student-led green campus initiatives and with our external stakeholders. UCC Futures - Sustainability will bring a single approach and strategic direction to all of these complementary activities, deepening inter-disciplinarity and strengthening connections between research and the curriculum.
Environmental Research
The University has invested significantly in sustainability and environmental research over the last two decades including the establishment of the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) in 2000. The AACSB accredited Cork University Business School, established in 2015, has a mission ‘to shape leaders for a sustainable future’ and the investment in inter-disciplinary research will see advances in sustainable business across all disciplines. UCC’s QS 100 Ranked Law School has a track record of research excellence and engagement in its ERI-affiliated Centre for Law and the Environment, and in wider areas of corporate and social governance.
Collaboration
The University’s significant research capacity in sustainability informs programmes throughout STEM, Business, Law, Social Sciences, Humanities, Medicine and Health. The Sustainable Futures initiative is developing a suite of educational and training courses to empower businesses to not only meet legal requirements in transitioning to a low-carbon future, but to develop new opportunities for Irish business. The University plans to build on its capacity to develop CPD offerings in this area in the coming years.
Applications Open
Applications are currently sought for a number of positions that support the ambitions of UCC Futures - Sustainability.
These academic posts are a key part of the next phase of the UCC Futures recruitment programme. Building on UCC's existing significant expertise and capacity across the social sciences, this programme of recruitment will drive a creative, inclusive, and interdisciplinary approach to this area and provide transformative leadership that will further enhance UCC's outstanding research and research-informed teaching.
Applications are particularly welcome from those with a disruptive and transformative research focus.
Explore the posts below for more information on the posts and who to contact for informal enquiries for each.
These positions are being filled as part of UCC Futures - Sustainability
UCC Futures is an ambitious new programme of research prioritisation, coupled with an innovative academic recruitment strategy spanning 10 strategically important indicative areas encompassing the humanities, arts, social sciences, STEM, health, business and law.
UCC Futures - Sustainability is a once in a generation opportunity to create a research ecosystem that will maximise the potential of our academic expertise and provide tangible, impactful, solutions in response to the most important global challenges of our time.
Posts closed for application
Senior Lecturers
These positions are being filled as part of UCC Futures - Sustainability.
UCC Futures is an ambitious new programme of research prioritisation, coupled with an innovative academic recruitment strategy spanning 10 strategically important indicative areas encompassing the humanities, arts, social sciences, STEM, health, business and law.
UCC Futures - Sustainability is a once in a generation opportunity to create a research ecosystem that will maximise the potential of our academic expertise and provide tangible, impactful, solutions in response to the most important global challenges of our time.
Posts closed for application
Lecturers
These positions are being filled as part of UCC Futures - Sustainability.
UCC Futures is an ambitious new programme of research prioritisation, coupled with an innovative academic recruitment strategy spanning 10 strategically important indicative areas encompassing the humanities, arts, social sciences, STEM, health, business and law.
UCC Futures - Sustainability is a once in a generation opportunity to create a research ecosystem that will maximise the potential of our academic expertise and provide tangible, impactful, solutions in response to the most important global challenges of our time.
University College Cork (UCC) is an internationally renowned university where excellence in teaching and research is aligned with an inclusive and respectful environment, where all staff and students can flourish and thrive.
Founded in 1845, UCC is a comprehensive research-intensive institution comprising four academic Colleges, delivering a rich tradition of collaborative teaching, research and scholarship that has true global impact.
Many thanks for your interest in a career at University College Cork (UCC).
UCC is one of Ireland’s oldest institutions of higher education. Our historic campus is situated in a UNESCO Learning City and global tourist destination, and serves a community that is both local and global. In 2021, UCC was ranked 8th in the world for impact by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, and has been named Sunday Times Irish University of the Year a record breaking five times. In 2010, UCC was the first third level education institution worldwide to receive the Green Campus award, and we still proudly fly our Green Flag over the magnificent quad following continued successful renewals. UCC has held a top ten place in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings since 2010 and is now ranked 9th in the world for sustainability. UCC has held a bronze Athena SWAN award since 2016, and nine Schools and Departments hold departmental-level awards at bronze level.
UCC is the leading Irish university for Industry collaboration and is the leading Irish university for seeking and securing investment in Research and Development. Several leading Irish Research Centres and Institutes are based in UCC including Tyndall National Institute, APC Microbiome Ireland, Environmental Research Institute (ERI), and the Centre for Marine Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) and ISS21.
UCC is the top higher institution in Ireland for Graduate Employability and our alumni excel in every walk of life across the world. Our true strength lies in the people who work and study here and UCC’s student body of almost 23,000 includes over 4,000 international students from more than 100 countries across all continents. Of the almost 3,000 professionals employed at UCC, over one third of academic staff have come from overseas. UCC is a university of inclusion, and the diversity of our staff and students is key to realising our mission to “create, understand and share knowledge and apply it for the good of all”. As we build on our 175-year history and work to secure our future, we remain a student-centred, connected university, committed to sustainability, community, and international engagement and to equality, diversity, and inclusion.
This briefing pack contains information which I hope will be useful and informative should you be selected to attend for interview here in Cork. I trust that your experience of our recruitment process will be a positive one and I thank you, again, for considering a career at University College Cork.
Best wishes,
Professor John O’Halloran
Top 1.1% of universities in the world
1st in Ireland for Graduate Employability
1st in Ireland for Access
7th most sustainable university in the world
€421m annual income
€100m 1st in Ireland for research income
3,000 academic, research, administrative and technical staff
1/3 of academic staff from overseas
200,000 alumni worldwide
24,111 registered students
17,027 undergraduates
7,084 postgraduates
4,357 international students from 104 countries
2,343 adult and continuing education students
53 clubs and 106 societies
About UCC Futures
UCC Futures is an ambitious new programme of research prioritisation coupled with an innovative academic recruitment strategy across ten indicative areas of strategic importance that will build a foundation for economic, societal and cultural resilience and prosperity.
Our Vision
University College Cork (UCC) is committed to continually strengthening its research and academic excellence. UCC Futures enables a dynamic enhancement of research, support of innovation and translation of research to tangible solutions to address emerging societal needs and global grand challenges, to secure a better future for all.
UCC Futures is one of a number of measures that will support our society to thrive and to secure a sustainable future for all.
UCC is a vibrant community of diverse and independent thought leaders with a shared ambition to be a connected university with excellent research at its heart. Enabling the development of novel interdisciplinary research is a core objective of our Strategic Plan 2023 - 2028 - Securing our Future. UCC Futures exemplifies this objective as we seek transformative, disruptive research leaders to connect research across disciplinary boundaries, create knowledge and translate research into sustainable benefits and value for society. Transformative research will inform UCC’s research-led Connected Curriculum, and deliver greater specialisation and renowned postgraduate programmes, positioning us as the university of choice for postgraduate study in signature areas of excellence. UCC Futures will foster collaboration and partnership, enabling our researchers to respond with agility to evolving circumstance and opportunity. UCC Futures is one of several measures that will support us to thrive and to secure a sustainable future for our university, our people and our planet.
Professor John F. Cryan
"UCC will lead and continue to create a research environment that is able to respond with agility to global societal challenges. Indeed, our world-class Research Centres and flagship Tyndall National Institute have been magnets for researchers to come to Cork and their impact shows the value of bringing together disciplines on a scale for the benefit of our society. UCC Futures will build on this success to accelerate research, connecting disciplines to generate an environment of creativity, curiosity and critical thinking that enables a more just and inclusive future. The facilitation of innovative interdisciplinary synergies will inspire, engage and enable our researchers to create the future. UCC welcomes researchers who think radically, are inclusive and connect diversity of thought for maximum, sustainable, economic, societal and cultural resilience and prosperity. UCC Futures will provide the positive and transformative environment to secure our collective futures through excellence in research and innovation."
