Is health research in Ireland serving the whole person?
Rethinking the place of arts, humanities and social sciences in health research.
November 10th 2026
Ashling Hotel, Dublin 8
Is health research in Ireland serving the whole person?
Rethinking the place of arts, humanities and social sciences in health research
What does it take to understand and improve people’s health? Biomedical and clinical research are fundamental, but they cannot answer every important question. Understanding people’s health, wellbeing and experiences of care also means considering their experiences, behaviour, relationships, communities, culture, values and the society in which they live.
Arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) are part of this wider health research landscape, bringing different questions, methods and ways of understanding health, illness and healthcare.
At this Irish Health Research Forum, we will ask whether we are thinking broadly enough about health research in Ireland: what we research, what we recognise as evidence and knowledge, how different disciplines work together, and how we define and recognise research quality, outputs, value and impact. We will also consider how different kinds of research are supported and assessed.
What to expect
This will be a participative morning rather than a series of presentations. We will begin with a series of short contributions designed to challenge our thinking, before discussion groups to explore the issues together. The morning will finish with a panel responding to the ideas and questions that have emerged.
Who should attend?
Anyone with an interest in health research is very welcome. We particularly hope to bring together people who do not often have opportunities to engage with one another – including researchers from across AHSS, biomedical, clinical and other disciplines; health charities; patients and members of the public; healthcare professionals; funders; policymakers and people working across the research system.
This event will create space for a constructive and inclusive conversation – starting not with individual disciplines or existing definitions of research, but with the knowledge and research we need to improve health and people’s lives.
HRCI Members and Irish Health Research Forum Steering Group members should input your access code at checkout. It has been sent by email. If you have any difficulty finding your code, please contact HRCI Events and Communication Manager, Linda McGrath on linda@hrci.ie
Examples of what arts, humanities and social sciences bring to health research
Arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) help us ask and answer important questions about health, illness and healthcare that cannot be addressed through biomedical and clinical research alone. Below are three examples. They use different ways of investigating, understanding and expressing what they find and allow us to see different parts of the same problem.
Bringing them together can help us ask better questions, understand the wider implications of new knowledge and innovation, and ensure that health research reflects the complexity of people’s health and lives.
Example 1: Dementia
Biomedical research can help us understand what causes dementia, identify changes in the brain and develop new treatments.
Different disciplines illuminate other dimensions of health: What does it mean to live well with dementia? How does a changing memory affect identity, autonomy and relationships? How should risk and independence be balanced? What shapes stigma and public attitudes? How can services better meet the needs of people with dementia and those who care for them?
Research drawing on disciplines such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, ethics and the humanities can help us understand and respond to these questions. Arts-based research can offer different ways of exploring, understanding and representing experiences that may be difficult to capture through more conventional research methods – for example, experiences of memory, identity and living with dementia.
Example 2: Genomics
Genomic research can identify genetic variants associated with disease, help us understand risk and increasingly inform diagnosis and treatment.
Different disciplines illuminate other dimensions of health: What happens when a genetic result reveals information about someone’s family as well as themselves? Do people have a right not to know? What does meaningful consent look like when future uses of genomic data cannot yet be anticipated? How might genetic information affect how we think about disability, responsibility or risk?
These questions draw on expertise from areas including ethics, philosophy, sociology, psychology, law and social research.
Example 3: AI in healthcare
Technical and clinical research can develop AI tools and test how accurately and safely they perform – from analysing scans to predicting risk or supporting clinical decisions.
Different disciplines illuminate other dimensions of health: What decisions are we comfortable allowing AI to influence? Who is responsible when it gets something wrong? How do we identify and respond to bias? What affects whether patients and healthcare professionals trust and use these technologies? And how might AI change the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals?
Understanding these questions requires research into organisations, behaviour and society from areas including sociology, ethics, psychology, philosophy and law.
Please join the HRCI Mailing list to receive invitations to future events, Forum reports and updates on the work of HRCI.
Declaration of Sponsorship
This meeting has been sponsored by Roche Products (Ireland) Limited. Roche Products (Ireland)
Limited has had no control over the educational content of this activity.