Resources

• Advice and guidance in respect of preparing research proposals
• Guidance in writing applications
• Mediating submissions to research support schemes
• Promoting opportunities for dissemination of research findings
• Professional research leave
• Inter-institutional joint postgraduate awards

• Professional development for staff and postgraduate researchers
• Professional development in supervision, examination and management of postgraduate students
• Research methodology upskilling
• Coaching and mentoring for publication
• Technical and report writing skills

• IP and copyright guidance
• Research ethics clearance
• Digital Repository (MIRR) support
• Coordination of research groups
• Research showcase events
• Pastoral services for postgraduate researchers

• Preparing technical reports
• Maintaining a research Risk Register
• Maintaining an Annual Operating Plan linked to the College Strategic Plan 
• Promoting Engagement with the Mary Immaculate Research Repository (MIRR) 
• Providing research information services & maintaining research databases
• Recording publications, conference presentations and other outputs
• Managing the research section of the College website
• Managing conference funds
• Managing Research Seed Funding
• Managing research proposals, grants & awards (pre and post award)
• External applications – fellowships/other awards
• Conducting an annual research survey
• Identifying and disseminating research funding opportunities
• Accommodating visiting scholars

MIREC has responsibility for all aspects of research ethics insofar as they relate to research projects carried out by MIC staff and MIC postgraduate researchers where the projects involve human participants. MIREC will support supervisors and researchers in ensuring that the research is carried out to the highest possible standards, with regard for the welfare of human participants and in accordance with recognised legal, professional and ethical standards. All research involving human participants conducted by a member of staff and/or postgraduate researchers as part of his/her professional activity/course of study requires prior approval by MIREC. Research involving human participants includes the physical participation of people in research projects as well as their involvement through provision of, or access to, personal data not already in the public domain.

Click here for more on MIREC.

MIRR is an open-access repository for research materials generated by MIC staff, postgraduate researchers, research institutes and research centres. It parallels similar repositories under development across the third level sector in Ireland and elsewhere. It makes research and scholarly materials produced in MIC available to the wider academic community through specific searches, internet searches and dedicated search engines, thus increasing the visibility of MIC research in its areas of strength, and publicising our research nationally and internationally. The potential of this facility in terms of new opportunities for collaborations is recognised, and we would welcome new developments in this area.

MIRR is underpinned by the principles of the Open Archive Initiative whose mission statement focuses upon "opening up access to a range of digital materials". Facilities such as this are now commonplace, and most of the University-level institutions are currently preparing to introduce such a facility or have already done so. The importance of developments in this area is emphasised in the RIA report Advancing Humanities and Social Science Research in Ireland (2007). It is intended to link MIRR to the IUA Libraries National Research Portal, which will establish an Irish national portal that provides a single window into research publications nationally.

MIRR is part of RIAN, the national research portal which centralises all the open access repository services for Ireland.

Resources

The MIC Library has over 150,000 books housed in its main building and stores and subscribes to approx. 300 journals.

Users can access over 30,000 online journals and over 100 online databases available via the College network and externally to registered users via the Internet.

The audio-visual library on the 1st floor has a large collection of DVDs and newspapers on microfilm as well as materials to support primary school teaching practice.

All MIC users have access to the library services and resources of the University of Limerick.

Services

A range of services is available including book loans, Inter-library loans, help and advice with our printed and electronic collections and information skills training.

Users may consult the Library Catalogue via the public access PCs in the Library or through the Internet from any PC.

IReL, the Irish Research eLibrary, is a nationally funded electronic research library available to staff and postgraduate researchers in MIC.

High-level research is both an academic and a national economic imperative, the essential component of a strategy to develop a knowledge-based economy and to position Ireland as a world leader in this respect. IReL delivers quality peer-reviewed online research publications journals, databases and index and abstracting services, as well as ebooks - direct to the desktop of researchers wherever they are located.

Researchers now have access to a world-class electronic library service comparable to any such service in the international research community. The range and quality of publications available through IReL compares favourably to what is available in some of the leading research libraries worldwide.

The National Forum on Research Integrity (NFRI) is in the process of implementing the roll-out of a programme of training across all of the RPOs in Ireland. This is free at the point of delivery (sponsored by the IUA, THEA, the Marine Institute and others). It is likely that only those researchers who have availed of this training will be deemed eligible for certain strands (extending to all strands) of research funding in future.

The training is provided by the independent firm Epigeum. This has been arranged by the NFRI. The MIC Research Office is coordinating the training roll-out at MIC for staff and research postgraduate students.

All members of the academic staff are required to participate in and respond to the Online Staff Research Survey conducted by the Research Office. Based on this survey and other available data, the College will compile databases of research activities and research outputs.