Siobhan Cusack

Siobhán holds a BA (Mod) Genetics (1996), PG Dip. Statistics (1999) and MSc (2000) from TCD, and a PhD (2004) from UCC.  Her early research focussed on molecular haematology (TCD and St. James's Hospital), epidemiological profiling & bacterial/viral monitoring (National Virus Reference Laboratory) and nutrigenomics (UCC).  Following postdoctoral research in transgenic bacteriology at UCC, from 2008-2011, she combined research, its management and administration as the Clinical and Project Co-ordinator of the highly successful ELDERMET project, which resulted in authorship on highly cited publications in leading scientific journals, including PNAS[1] and Nature[2]. 

Siobhán has served as UCC’s Science Foundation Ireland Research Administrator (2006-2007), UCC's Research Officer (2011-2013) and Senior Research Officer (2013-2017), with specific responsibility for the support of UCC’s large scale Research Centres - from support of initial application development to their implementation, industry engagement, funding acquisition and governance. 

In March 2017, Siobhán was appointed Head of UCC's Student Records and Examinations Office (SREO). She had an immediate transformative impact, leading the SREO in delivering excellence across its core functions (>250,000 registration events, >100,000 examinations, annually and curation of the perpetual student record). Siobhán continually drove innovative process, policy and procedural reform, successfully leading rapid implementation of novel solutions to the challenges posed by COVID-19 across ~60 SREO functions, ensuring no break in service delivery for staff or students.  Siobhán was co-author of UCC’s first ever Assessment Framework during this time, defining those advancements which shaped the composition and delivery of UCC's next generation educational offerings. 

Siobhán returned to the OVPRI in 2021 as Director of Research Strategy & Projects, applying her comprehensive understanding of the integrated research and academic landscapes to the support of UCC’s research community.  In addition to being the point of contact for all strategic initiatives, Siobhán has developed UCC’s first ever Research Charter[3], is leading the implementation of a new end-to-end Research Information System and leads UCC’s innovative UCC Futures[4] framework.  Siobhán has recognised expertise and a long track record of identifying and demonstrating the potential and actualisable impact inherent in research across all disciplines.

[1] Composition, variability, and temporal stability of the intestinal microbiota of the elderly | PNAS

[2] Gut microbiota composition correlates with diet and health in the elderly | Nature

[3] Research Charter | UCC Research | University College Cork

[4] UCC Futures - Securing our future through excellence in research | University College Cork