Professor Catherine Comiskey

Professor Comiskey holds a MA and a B.A.(Mod) degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin University, Ireland and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in biomathematics with statistics and epidemiology from Dublin City University, Ireland. Professor Comiskey has over 20 years research and lecturing experience in statistics and mathematics applied to healthcare and her personal research interests are in substance use, child wellbeing and innovation. From 2017 to present Professor Comiskey was elected by EU members as Vice Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, a committee with a legal remit from the EU. In 2014 Prof Comiskey was selected after an EU wide competition to serve as an EU expert on the Scientific Committee of the EU's European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Portugal. From 2017 to present she was invited by Minister Byrne to be the sole academic expert on the National Drug Strategy Implementation Committee. From 2014 to 2017 she was invited by Minister Varadkar to serve on the Oversight Forum on Drugs. From 2014 to 2017 she was invited by Minister White to Chair the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol. In 2007 to 2010 she was appointed by Minister of Education and Science to serve on the board of The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, (IRCSET). Catherine has served as Head of School (2014-2017), Director of Research (2008-2011 and 2011-2014), Inaugural Director and Founder of the Trinity Centre for Practice and Healthcare Innovation (TCPHI)(2014-2017), Inaugural and Founding Chair of the Children's Research Network of Ireland and Northern Ireland CRNINI (2010-2014) and Professor in Healthcare Statistics at the School of Nursing and Midwifery (2008-present). Catherine has had responsibility for developing, writing and implementing the School of Nursing and Midwifery Strategic Plan, the School's Financial Plan the Staffing Plan, the School's Research Plan, the TCPHI Strategic Plan, the CRNINI Strategic and Financial Plan, and is currently leading on quantitative methodologies and directing and promoting innovation and research in nursing, midwifery and healthcare education, practice and policy. Professor Comiskey has over 100 peer reviewed publication in her research topics, she has successfully graduated to completion 12 PhD's, one DSc and one MD. She is currently supervising an additional 10 PhD's and has three PhD applicants pending. Catherine mentors emerging academics and school children and has been a judge at the Young Scientists Exhibition since 2012.

  Addiction   Addiction and substance abuse   Biostatistical methods   Cervical cancer   Child centred research questions, study design, data analysis   Clinical research, trials   Drug Abuse   Epidemiology   Health outcomes   Infectious diseases   Mathematical modelling   Population Studies   Substance Abuse   Surveys & Survey Research

Professor Comiskey's recognition as a leader in addiction research has been recognised internationally and nationally by all relevant leading addiction bodies. She uses her training in epidemiology and bio-mathematics to address research questions in addiction epidemiology across the lifespan, from prevalence estimation of children living with parental drug use to ageing and substance use, to modelling treatment outcomes. In October 2022 she was invited to address the EU's Working Party on Drugs in Brussels on Drug Research Priorities for the European Union. In 2020 - 2022 inclusive, she was elected by her EU peers as Chairperson on the Scientific Committee of the European Union's European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. She has been invited to be nominated for this role again from 2023-2024 inclusive. In 2020 she was appointed by the United Nations as their external consultant for the International Narcotics Control Board. In 2020 she was invited to address United Nations in Vienna on her consultancy on ageing and substance use globally. In 2019 she was appointed by the European Union's European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction as an external consultant. From 2019-present She has served on the International Review Board of Xchange, the international registry of drug prevention programmes. From 2017-2020 inclusive she was elected by her scientific peers to serve as the Vice Chair of the EU's EMCDDA Scientific Committee From 2014 to Present she was selected to serve on the Scientific Committee of the EMCDDA from an international competition From 2017 to Present she was nominated by Minister Byrne as the academic expert on the Implementation Committee of the National Drug Strategy. She continues to be the current Ministers appointed Academic Expert to the National Implementation Committee. From 2015-2017 she was nominated by then Minister of Health to serve on the National Drug Strategy Team From 2012 to 2016 she was nominated by Ministers Alex White and Aodan O'Riordan to serve as the Chair of the National advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol From 2017 to Present she has served voluntarily on the Board of the Ana Liffey Drug Project Charity. From 2006-2008 Professor Comiskey was appointed by Minister of Education, Mary Hannafin to serve on the Board of the Irish Research Council. In the last two years Professor Comiskey has obtained over €400,000 in grants and in the last five years she has obtained approximately €2.5 million in personal research funding either as Principal Investigator or as Leading Quantitative Investigator. Theee arise from a range of international and national funding bodies. In total she has obtained over €6.5m in the past 20 years. In addition, she currently has approximately €550,000 in grant funding submitted and awaiting outcome from Horizon 2022 and the Department of Health.