Dr. Conor O’Carroll

Conor is Chair of the European Steering Group on Human Resources and Mobility focusing on researcher career development as part of the European Research Area (ERA). He has led the development of the European Framework for Research Careers (EFRC) and the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training (PIDT).

​Conor is a physicist by training with a B.Sc., M.Sc. in Mathematical Physics and PhD in Physics from University College Dublin. He has been internationally mobile having done his doctoral research in Italy and worked for both academia and industry in Ireland, Scotland and Germany. He has worked in different sectors including petroleum engineering and nuclear technology. He has extensive experience of policy formulation having worked in the European Commission’s DG Research and with the Irish science policy advisory agency Forfás. He has also deep experience of the operations of funding agencies through his time with the Marie Sklodowska Curie Programme, Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland.

​He established the Irish Universities Association (IUA) Research Office that now acts as a hub for the development and furthering of university policy and practice in all research related matters. He acts as a peer review panel chair for the Health Research Board, Irish Research Council and the European Commission, Horizon 2020 (ER, Chair of Marie Sklodowska Curie COFUND Doctoral Programmes 2014, 2015). Conor’s research interests include doctoral training; researcher career development; the development and impact of national / European R&D policy. His current focus is on researcher career development and mobility in the context of Open Science.

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