With the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland soon to merge to become Research Ireland, the research sector in the country is at a critical and exciting juncture. This overview article takes stock of the work and achievements leading up to this point and looks ahead to a collaborative future in research activity both nationally and internationally.

Women remain under-represented at senior levels in academia and continue to experience direct and indirect discrimination throughout their careers. The problem that my research sought to address is that there is no qualitative empirical data that looks at whether any change or movement towards gender equality has emerged as a result of the Gender Action Plan 2018–2020.

This article offers a broad overview of some of the challenges and opportunities associated with generative artificial intelligence. Given the technology’s capabilities and availability, it is incumbent on us to consider our individual and collective response to the impact it could have in both formal and informal educational contexts.

Care is usually not positioned as fundamental to how we teach at third level, but research shows that it is central to good teaching and learning, especially for students who need more support. This article looks at why care matters and how academics can keep care at the centre of what we do, creating a climate of care in our new technological universities.

What does meaningful consultation with autistic students look like? This article draws on contemporary research projects in Ireland which consult with autistic students about their educational experiences, from early childhood to primary and secondary school. It outlines why seeking these perspectives is critical for recognising children’s rights to be heard on matters which concern them and for identifying supports that are meaningful to autistic children and their families.

This article gives an overview of childhood acquired brain injury (ABI) and provides guidelines on how primary school teachers can support a child with ABI to participate inclusively in their classroom. Many consequences of ABI are invisible, so it is important for teachers to look beyond what they see to provide this support to children with ABI.

Using virtual reality (VR) may have several benefits in the field of trainee education. For example it can allow them to test and deal with experiments that will be part of their future careers. This article explores how to best use VR, specifically the Oculus Quest 2 system, to improve and develop the level of contemporary training and enhance the educational experience.

Skills, Training, Education and Person-Centred Support Project (Steps+) is a new, innovative career guidance platform developed for the young people and staff in Oberstown Children Detention Centre. It was designed collaboratively with key stakeholders through a three-year action-research pilot project. This article describes the platform’s development.

This article explores the role of creativity in fostering wellbeing across the continuum of education. It draws on findings from the CreatEd study to interrogate how creativity is defined and supported in education and the potentialities it presents for nurturing wellbeing across our school communities, particularly in supporting how young people understand who they are as citizens in an increasingly complex and globalised world.

There is a dearth of research on how disabled young adults reflect on self-determination and post-school opportunities, and how school context shapes these. This article reports on a study of decision-making at this critical juncture. It shows that self-determination and decision-making are systemic phenomena, and certain risk factors tend to appear together. It makes recommendations for schools to ensure that all young adults can make self-determined choices and are prepared for post-school life.

Most risk factors for developing non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, are established during adolescence. Urgent action is required to prevent the premature death of this cohort in Ireland as a result. We conducted a quasi-experiment combining positive psychology and lifestyle medicine to help students improve their sleep, nutrition, stress management, and physical activity. Here we reflect on our findings and the implications for school wellbeing policy and practice.

Education is a natural home of organisational psychology in action. This article outlines the benefits of this approach and the various models of organisational psychology that may be applied in an educational setting.

A direct link exists between the experimentation carried out on children and other vulnerable groups in Nazi Germany and current research practice internationally, including in Ireland. This article outlines the emergence of research codes of ethics in the wake of the Nuremberg trials that took place after World War II.