Jennifer Kenny

Dr Jennifer Kenny is a Research Support Officer with UCC Futures – Future Ageing and Brain Science at University College Cork, where she provides strategic, administrative, and research support to facilitate interdisciplinary research and collaboration across the programme. In this role, she supports research development, stakeholder engagement, knowledge exchange activities, and the coordination of initiatives that advance healthy ageing and brain science.

Jennifer completed a PhD in Science at University College Cork, where her research focused on the behavioural evaluation and activity monitoring of apprentice assistance dogs during their training programme. This collaborative project between University College Cork, Tyndall National Institute, and the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind was funded through the Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Scheme. Her research explored canine behaviour, welfare, and the application of technology to support evidence-based assessment of assistance dogs in training. During her doctoral studies, she led research on canine behaviour and technology integration, presented at national and international conferences, contributed to public engagement initiatives, and delivered invited lectures, including for the University of Vermont.

Her research background spans animal behaviour, human-animal interactions, dementia research, healthcare communication, and public engagement in research. She has contributed to a range of multidisciplinary projects involving canine-assisted therapy in stroke rehabilitation, Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in dementia research, virtual reality-based communication training, and behavioural monitoring of working dogs. Through these projects, she has developed expertise in project coordination, stakeholder engagement, qualitative and quantitative research methods, research dissemination, and knowledge translation. Jennifer is passionate about supporting impactful research that translates into meaningful benefits for individuals, communities, and society.