National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis NIRSA

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National Institute for Regional and Spatial
Analysis (NIRSA)

• Research Structure, Supports and Agenda
• by
• Professor Gerry Boyle
• Director NIRSA
• 1st November 2001
• NUI MAYNOOTH

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What is NIRSA?

• A multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional
  research institute dedicated to regional and
  spatial analysis.
• Owes its formal existence to the innovative PRTLI
  initiative.
• Public and private funding amounting to 2.712 m.
  over 3 years - 1.143 m. capital and 1.569 m.
  recurrent.

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Requirements for Research on Regional Spatial
Analysis

• A multi-disciplinary multi-institutional
  research team
• A critical mass of researchers
• The creation of a Spatial Information Systems
  database - a public research resource
• Innovative funding supports - PRTLI

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Multi-Disciplinary Structure

• Anthropologists
• Economists
• Geographers
• Historians
• Mathematicians
• Sociologists

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Multi-Institutional Structure

• National University of Ireland, Maynooth
• Dublin Institute of Technology
• Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
• Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
• Sligo Institute of Technology
• Waterford Institute of Technology

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NIRSA Funding OpportunitiesCompetitively-Based
Allocation

• NIRSA Ph.D. Fellows (3 years)
• NIRSA IT Staff Ph.D. Fellows (1 year FT)
• NIRSA IT Research M.A. Fellows (2 years)
• NIRSA Post Doctoral Fellows (2 years)
• NIRSA Resident Associates (6 months)
• NIRSA Visiting Associates (6 months)
• NIRSA Student Interns (3 months)

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NIRSAS MISSION

• To facilitate the interdisciplinary and
  comparative study of the impact of global
  processes on regional and spatial development in
  Ireland.
• To research the critical global issues and
  processes, as they are manifest in local and
  regional contexts.
• To foster the comparative study of similar issues
  and contexts in other (especially European)
  nations.

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NIRSA MEDIUM TERM OBJECTIVES

• Increase the number of research students (Ph.Ds.)
  and Post-Docs above existing norms.
• Increase the level and quality of publishable
  research output.
• Establish multi-disciplinary teaching programmes
  at post-graduate and undergraduate level.
• Promote and foster multi-disciplinarity in
  teaching, research and Ph.D. supervision.
• Promote and maintain inter-institutional
  relationships both nationally and
  internationally.
• Promote NIRSA as a national and international
  resource for teaching, research and application.

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Focus on Fundamental Research

• The primary task of the Institute is to conduct
  fundamental analysis.
• Create a centralised source of information - the
  Spatial Information Systems database - which will
  provide a platform for international studies and
  a unique resource for rigorous policy analysis.

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Fundamental Research Questions to be Addressed

• The emergence of urban networks
• The quality of life implications of different
  forms of settlement
• The role and function of rural areas
• Interdependencies between places
• The sources of inequality in respect to
  participation in the mainstream economy

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Research Questions Continued ...

• The restructuring of communities and reshaping of
  their environments
• The restructuring of productive sectors of the
  economy
• The assessment of environmental risks
• The management of the natural environmental and
  cultural heritage resources

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A Structure for Dealing With This Complexity

• The complexity of these questions ensures that no
  single discipline can claim to provide even
  partial answers.
• We need the insights of several disciplines to be
  harnessed in some coherent way.
• The enormity of this challenge should not be
  underestimated.
• NIRSAs response ...

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Programme Area 1Spatial and Social Exclusion
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Programme Area 2Global Processes Regional
Change
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Spatial and Social Exclusion

• What factors explain the wide and persistent
  divergence in living standards between the
  regions of Ireland?
• What factors explain the persistence of
  inequality within regions as between households
  and individuals?
• What role can endogenous regional responses play
  in promoting development?
• What are the implications for our environmental
  and heritage inheritance of rapid and imbalanced
  regional development?

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Global Processes Regional Change

• How do forces such as globalisation and urbanism
  impinge on people's sense of belonging to
  community?
• How do communities in large and growing
  urban centres define and sustain their
  individuality?
• What role do social movements play in the dynamic
  of community life?
• What are the processes, tensions and historical
  experiences of the absorption of migrants into
  large urban centres and especially Dublin?
• What challenges are presented for models of
  governance in the process of rapid regional
  change?

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The NIRSA RESEARCHER TRAINING MODEL
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More on the Model

• This model is not designed to create hierarchies.
  
• The idea is that all levels will combine as a
  team.
• Creates a continuum from beginner to accomplished
  professional researcher.
• Purpose - to develop a professional career
  structure that will appeal to Humanities and
  Social Sciences graduates.
• Provides a supportive learning environment long a
  feature of the natural sciences and the
  successful American graduate schools.

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Proposed Innovative Teaching Initiatives

• A multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional
  taught Post Graduate Programme.
• The provision of multi-disciplinary Special
  Topics in undergraduate programmes.
• The establishment of an annual specialist Summer
  School. The target audience will comprise
  academics, practitioners, policy-makers and
  community development groups.

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An Invitation - Posters Wine and a Research
Directory

• Young People, Drug Use and Early School Leaving
• Newbridge Accessibility Mapping Project
• NIRSA Summer Student Internship - 19th Century
  Dublin A Topographical Database
• Mapping Historical Towns
• Future Climate Change Scenarios for Ireland

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Posters Wine Continued ...

• New Urban Living The Social Fabric of Irish
  Suburbs
• Four Cities Project
• Mapping of National and Sub-National (Co. Meath!)
  Patterns of Economic, Social and Demographic
  Change
• Explaining Correlations Among Stock Market Prices
  in Different Countries
• Organic Food and Trust

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NIRSA - The Future

• Consolidate progress thus far
• Deepen extent of inter-disciplinary collaboration
  - project based activity
• Deepen inter-institutional collaboration, ESRI,
  EPA, Combat Poverty, Teagasc, Coford, Forfas,
  etc.
• Appeal to public procurers of research to strike
  a better balance between short-term needs and
  fundamental research and
• Remember

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A Parting Thought ...

• Research is the lever of riches - An Economist