The theme of the conference was ‘Communicating your Research’. Each of the ICE projects was presented in an ‘elevator pitch’ style, with between 3 and 5 minutes to convince the audience that their project was interesting and important. In addition, there were 2 exciting guest speaker sessions. In the morning the Innovation Academy at Trinity College Dublin led Fellows in a practical workshop about using video media to communicate research to a wider audience. In the afternoon Donal O’Shea of St Vincent’s University Hospital and University College Dublin described his experiences in a presentation entitled ‘Health messaging in the media – why we must inform it’.
The Health Research Board has funded 11 Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) Awards in 2011 and 2012. These innovative postdoctoral fellowships are designed to build and attract capacity for future leaders in Population Health and Health Services Research in Ireland. These awards have a team-based approach, enabling the development of partnerships between researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in policy and health service delivery. Each year the ICE Award fellows meet to provide an opportunity for sharing research ideas and results, networking within and between disciplines and undertaking professional development activities. Next year the conference will be hosted in Dublin.