This research aims to understand the needs and experiences of the ageing LGBTQIA+ population in Northern Ireland. Across the UK, services for older people generally are very deficient and specific needs of LGBTQIA+ people require particular attention. Limited research exists that explores the human development, well-being or lived experiences of the ageing LGBTQ+ community and what is available has been described as small and underdeveloped (Kneale et al., 2019). Further, it is unclear whether general ageing service providers recognise the specific needs of the LGBTQIA+ community (Hughes et al., 2011). Westwood (2016, 2017a, 2017b) highlights that social care for older people (defined as domiciliary care, housing with extra care, residential and nursing home provision) is perceived to be heteronormative, heterosexist and homo/bi and transphobic by LGBTQIA+ people. Studies have shown that mainstream end-of-life care and bereavement support providers are ill-equipped to deal with the needs of older LGBTQ+ people (Fenge and Fannin, 2009; Almack et al., 2010). Recent research by Caceres et al. (2020) has highlighted that LGBTQIA+ individuals identified concerns related to long-term support and care planning and fear of discrimination from long-term support providers. LGBTQIA+ people in this study also identified a need for increased training of providers to improve the care of LGBTQIA+ older adults in long-term support provisions. It is clear from the available literature on LGBTQIA+ ageing that there are gaps in knowledge, particularly in terms of the ageing LGBTQIA+ population in NI regarding their physical and mental health needs, their experiences of health and social care services and what impact these have on their overall well-being.

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Primary Supervisor - Dr Danielle Mackle

Secondary Supervisors -  Professor Audrey Roulston & Dr Gemma Carney

Partner Organisation - HERe NI

Explore the perspectives, understanding & experiences of childcare social workers throughout Northern Ireland relating to children and young people's involvement in decision-making processes that are applicable to their care and wellbeing.

Primary Supervisor - Dr Paul McCafferty

Secondary Supervisors - Dr Gerry Marshall & Dr Paul Best

Partner Organisation - Voices of Young People in Care

Using a participatory and rights-based approach to develop a measure of children's experiences of poverty in Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on the experiences of black children.

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Primary Supervisor -Dr Mary-Louise Corr

Secondary Supervisor - Dr Catherine McNamee

Partner Organisation - Save the Children Northern Ireland

My study aims to explore how care-experienced young mothers navigate their experiences of motherhood, support and identity within the social, cultural and policy contexts of Northern Ireland, through a participatory and rights-based research approach.

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Primary Supervisor - Dr Paul McCafferty

Secondary Supervisor - Davy Hayes

Partner Organisation -VOYPIC

My PhD investigates how whole‑community approaches can address educational underachievement, with a particular focus on the role of community organisations and the ways they collaborate with schools to support learners

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Primary Supervisor - Professor Daniel Muijs

Secondary Supervisors - Dr Gavin Duffy & Dr Gareth Robinson

Partner Organisation - The Market Development Association and The Greater Shankill Partnership

My doctoral research explores how Ulster emigrants to North America between 1845 and 1900 constructed and sustained a sense of “home” through personal correspondence. Rather than treating emigration as a moment of rupture or exile, the project looks at letters as active spaces of belonging, where home was continually made and remade through relationships, obligation, memory, and everyday communication. By tracing how ideas of home travelled and were nurtured through correspondence and social networks across the Atlantic, the research presents Irish emigration as a story of continuity rather than dislocation.

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Primary Supervisor - Dr Sophie Cooper

Secondary Supervisor - Dr Patrick Fitzgerald

Partner Organisation - Mellon Centre for Migration Studies

Alannah Travers is a PhD student at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) School of Law as part of a Collaborative Studentship by the Department for the Economy (DfE) and the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, under the supervision of Professor Luke Moffett and Dr Conall Mallory. Her research project, Algorithmic Warfare and Civilian Harm, seeks to address how the increasing use of AI-decision support systems, algorithmic targeting and autonomous weapons are reshaping the legal and moral status of the civilian in armed conflict, and how global power imbalances are driving regulation (or not). The gap between the development and regulation of Big Tech and emerging military technologies, including autonomous weapons, poses one of the most urgent legal and ethical challenges of our time. She hopes to explore and give space to the impact of algorithmic warfare on the very way that the 'human' and 'civilian' are understood and valued within the legal and ethical frameworks of war.

Primary Supervisor - Professor Luke Moffett

Secondary Supervisors - Dr Conall Mallory

Partner Organisation - Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights