Dr Seán Millar is a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher. After completing a Master's degree in Public Health, Seán undertook a PhD (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) at UCC where his research examined anthropometric measures and blood biomarkers regarding their utility for assessing cardiometabolic risk in clinical practice. During this time he also represented the Irish Health Research Board (HRB) Centre for Health and Diet Research in its collaboration with the European BioSHaRE data sharing and harmonisation consortium.

Since completing his PhD, Dr Millar has been working in the School of Public Health as a researcher for the Irish National Focal Point of the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), formerly the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), which is headquartered at the HRB. In this role he is responsible for reporting on drug use prevalence, health correlates and consequences of drug use, and substance abuse in Irish prisons. Seán is a regular contributor to Drugnet Ireland, the quarterly newsletter of the EUDA Irish National Focal Point, and is the Principal Investigator for repeated capture-recapture studies that estimate the prevalence of opioid use in Ireland. Findings from Dr Millar's research with the EUDA Irish Focal Point were recently used by the Department of Health in the drafting of Ireland's 2026–2030 National Drugs Strategy.

In addition to his work with the EUDA, Dr Millar has been involved in a number of research projects and has authored over 70 scientific reports and peer-reviewed publications. The safefood-funded Lifetime Costs of Childhood Overweight and Obesity project represented the Irish contribution to a larger pan-European Joint Action on Nutrition and Physical Activity (JANPA) project. The overall aim of JANPA was to contribute to halting the rise of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Outcomes from this study have been used to guide health policy in Ireland. Dr Millar was also part of the HRB-funded Lifestyle Transitions and Trajectories Through the Lifecourse: Enhancing Capacity in Irish Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies project. From this, one of Seán's continuing responsibilities in the School is data management of the Mitchelstown Cohort Study. This study of ~2,000 middle- to older-aged men and women provides a wealth of dietary, lifestyle, anthropometric, biological, clinical and sociodemographic data, and has been a valuable resource for testing a range of novel hypotheses. 

As well as drugs-related research, Dr Millar's current interests include investigating the contribution of overweight and obesity, diet, lifestyle behaviours and metabolic phenotype to cardiovascular disease and cancer risk and the influence of adverse childhood experiences on adult health. 

Project Title: Problem drug use in Cork city
Funding Body: Health Service Executive and Cork City Council
Role: Principal Investigator

Period: 14 Jul 2024 → 14 Jan 2025

Award: €25,419.00

Project Title: ESHEILD: Enabling students and higher education institutions to lead the response on drugs
Funding Body: Department of Health
Role: Co-Applicant

Period: 1 Jul 2024 → 30 Jun 2027

Award: €293,988.00

Project Title: Research service to report drug prevalence, health correlates of drug use, consequences of drug use and prison data to the EMCDDA and an updated estimate of problem drug use in Ireland, 2024–2027
Funding Body: Health Research Board
Role: Principal Investigator

Period: 1 Jan 2024 → 31 Dec 2027

Award: €283,004.50

Project Title: Research service to report drug prevalence, health correlates of drug use, consequences of drug use and prison data to the EMCDDA (2021–2023) and an updated estimation of problem drug use
Funding Body: Health Research Board
Role: Principal Investigator

Period: 1 Jan 2021 → 31 Dec 2023

Award: €161,459.00

Project Title: A capture-recapture study to estimate the prevalence of problem opioid use in Ireland, 2015–2019
Funding Body: Health Research Board
Role: Principal Investigator

Period: 1 Nov 2020 → 31 Oct 2021

Award: €47,815.00

Project Title: Research service to report drug prevalence, health correlates of drug use, consequences of drug use and prison data to the EMCDDA, 2018–2020  
Funding Body: Health Research Board
Role: Principal Investigator

Period: 1 Jan 2018 → 31 Dec 2020

Award: €148,419.18

Module Coordinator
Jan 2020 → Dec 2023
EH2007 Public Health Research Report 

Module Coordinator
Jan 2019 → Dec 2023
EH3014 Data Analysis for Public Health Research

Lecturer
Sep 2019 → Dec 2023
EH4000 Advanced Applied Epidemiology 

Lecturer
Jan 2016 → Dec 2023
EH6031 Advanced Epidemiology