HEALR Research Group

The aim of the HEALR Research Group is to focus and develop applied research in the health and social sciences fields in Limerick Institute of Technology and throughout the Mid-West. A particular focus of HEALR will be mental health. The HEALR Group aims to foster and cultivate research through providing a supportive research environment based on mutual respect, mutual assistance, innovation, experimentation and reflection.

• The HEALR Group aims to use research to identify, highlight and combat inequalities, stereotyping, discrimination and social exclusion.
• The HEALR Group will, within the resources available, provide support for students and staff embarking on relevant research in TUSand throughout the Mid-West region.
• The HEALR Group will, within the resources available, provide support for voluntary and community groups embarking on relevant research in the Mid-West region.
• The HEALR Group will work in an interdisciplinary manner, challenging traditional discipline-based approaches (i.e. breaking down the ‘silo mentality’)
• The HEALR Group will support the development, implementation, critical evaluation and reflection on novel and more traditional approaches to research (including participatory, emancipatory and action research approaches).

HEALR Group members are committed to combatting inequalities, stereotyping, discrimination and social exclusion.

HEALR Group members are committed to developing their own research skills and those of others based on the Freirean assumption that ‘No one knows it all; no one is ignorant of everything. We all know something; we are all ignorant of something’.

Principal Investigator: Dr Frank Haughton