NICVA’s Closing The Gaps event

Aidan Campbell, Research Programme Development Manager at the Centre for Cross Border Studies, attended the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) and Voluntary Sector Studies Network conference yesterday.

The conference was looking at how to address barriers to collaboration between the the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and academia – how to can build on and maximise existing opportunities.

Aidan said: “There were great inputs and conversations yesterday at NICVA at the Closing the Gaps event. Powerful questions posed by Féilim Ó hAdhmaill for researchers – who benefits from research, what are the outcomes for communities, where does power sit in the research relationship, how can power imbalances be named and addressed. Was also revealing to hear from a range of academics on the pressures they face. Public funding for higher education has reduced in the past twenty years leading to precarious contracts and the need to generate greater share of research funding from other sources. Leaves less room for research collaboration with civic society organisations who have less resource for research.”