Jen Doran, Communications Project Officer, works with IGNITE, an incubation programme for founders working full-time on their start-up. The programme is open to recent graduates in any discipline from any third level institution in Ireland. Jen who is from Texas, USA came to Ireland to work and live. We recently caught up with Jen to ask her more about her work and what she likes about Cork and Ireland.

A group of finance staff from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, visited University College Cork in June, and we were excited to meet with them to discuss the inner workings of UCC Academy!  Birgit Felton (Head of Division of Financial and Accounting), Carolin Felder (Management of External Funding), Janina Meier (Vice Department Manager, Tax Department), Alexander Vorwerk (Finance and Accounting Department), and Julia Böhm (Management of External Funding) were hosted by Mary McSweeney, Senior Finance Manager at UCC. The visit included meetings and tours across UCC locations, including the main campus, Mardyke Arena, and the Beaufort Research Laboratory (MaREI) in Ringaskiddy. Discussions covered a range of topics relevant to financial management in both UCC and RUB, including EU research funding, subsidiary models, financial structures, reporting, philanthropy and donations, and online systems. Cathal O'Mahony, EU Grant Manager at MaREI, commented that the visit included "very insightful discussions on best practices to support research excellence in European funding programmes.

UCC Academy Project Manager attended the UN Climate Change Summit (COP27) at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November on behalf of the Smart Protein Project.