This IUA Future of Ireland event on 25th June 2026 in the Conrad Hotel Dublin will take place at a formative moment for the INSPIRE programme, with calls newly open and institutions beginning to mobilise.
The event also takes place one week ahead of Ireland assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This creates a timely opportunity to position INSPIRE not only as a national investment, but as a key enabler of Ireland’s role in shaping the future of European research infrastructure.
We will hear the views of Minister James Lawless on the future of INSPIRE and the focus of the discussion will be forward-looking: how INSPIRE can strengthen Ireland’s capacity, credibility and influence within the evolving European research infrastructure landscape.
Prof John O’Halloran will provide the opening comments.
Paul Johnston, Director General of IUA, will also take this opportunity to launch the IUA Strategy 2026-2030.
Panellists
Name and Title:
Prof Kate Robson Brown
VP Research UCD - Panel Chair
Description: Prof Kate Robson Brown is the VP of Research and Innovation at UCD.
Kate will chair the panel.
Name and Title:
Dr Diarmuid O'Brien
CEO, Research Ireland
Description: Dr Diarmuid O’Brien is the CEO of Research Ireland which is the primary research and innovation funding agency for Ireland providing investment across all research disciplines.
Prior to this Diarmuid was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge where he was responsible for innovation, enterprise partnership, research commercialisation, entrepreneurship, venture investment and engagement with local and national government on innovation and place. Previously, he was also the Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, the innovation services organisation which supports the University of Cambridge.
During his time at Cambridge, Diarmuid led the creation of a number of initiatives to unlock innovation and offer enhanced support for translational funding and company creation, including Founders at the University of Cambridge and the Technology Investment Fund. He co-founded and Chaired Innovate Cambridge, a highly collaborative initiative defining and delivering an inclusive innovation future for the Cambridge ecosystem.
Previously Diarmuid was Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer of Trinity College Dublin where he had responsibility for new campus development, innovation and enterprise partnerships. He has held other senior management roles in research centres (CRANN, AMBER) and several university-founded start-up companies, including NTera, Xoliox, and Deerac Fluidics.
Diarmuid was a Research Fellow at Princeton University. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Sheffield and a degree in Materials Science from Trinity College Dublin.
Name and Title:
Antje Keppler
Director of the Euro-BioImaging ERIC Bio-Hub
Description: Antje Keppler is Director of the Euro-BioImaging ERIC Bio-Hub, hosted by EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany. She leads an international team coordinating Euro-BioImaging’s pan-European services for biological imaging, including open access to advanced imaging technologies, expertise, training, and image data services.
She also coordinates Global BioImaging, an international network connecting imaging communities and research infrastructures across more than 70 countries, promoting open science, capacity building, and global access to imaging services.
Since 2026, Antje has served on the Board of Directors of the EOSC Association, contributing a research infrastructure and community perspective to the European Open Science Cloud. From 2023 to 2025, she chaired the ERIC Forum.
She trained as a biochemist at Ruhr University Bochum and obtained her PhD in chemical biology from EPFL.
Name and Title:
Prof Gianpiero Cavalleri
Professor of Human Genetics at RCSI
Description: Gianpiero Cavalleri is Professor of Human Genetics at RCSI and Deputy Director of the Research Ireland FutureNeuro Research Centre. His team is applying genomic approaches to identify novel genetic causes of epileptic encephalopathies and improve the diagnostic yield of genetic sequencing in the epilepsy clinic. He is co-lead the Irish element to the European Genomic Data Infrastructure Project, which is seeking to enable safe storage and federated analysis of genomic data across Europe. He also co-leads the Genome of Ireland study, the Irish component to European initiative to assemble whole genome sequence data on over 100,000 people in Europe. He is a member of the National Science Advice Forum, for the Government of the Republic of Ireland.
