PhD proposal development talks by the Year 1 ICAT Fellows

• Dr Claudia Gilders, Dr Ralph Hurley O’Dwyer, Dr Cian Henry, Dr Jennifer McGarry, Dr Hongying Chen

Fast-paced research session, 3-minute talks from the ICAT Fellows

• Dr Yvonne Fahy, Dr Brian O’Mahony, Dr Alice Talbot, Dr Nicholas Stefanovic

Fast-paced research session, 3-minute talks from the ICAT Fellows

• Dr John Mark O’Leary, Dr Sophie Duignan, Dr Brian Maloney, Dr Niamh Dhondt

Parallel session: Small group mentoring session for final year fellows and alumni in the adjacent boardroom.

The Irish Clinical Academic Training – Accelerating Health Research to Support Ageing Demographics (ICAT-AHEAD) Programme builds on the success of the ICAT Programme to support the next generation of clinician scientists in Ireland. This session will provide an overview of the programme’s vision, objectives, and proposed training pathways, highlighting new opportunities for clinical academics across registered healthcare professions. 

Fast-paced research session, 3-minute talks from the ICAT Fellows

• Dr Adrien Da Silva, Dr Michael Duggan, Dr Shahd Elamin, Dr David Synnott, Dr Catherine Duane

Parallel session: Small group mentoring session for pre-PhD fellows in the adjacent boardroom.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Julie-Anne Little to the ICAT Retreat. Professor Little is Professor of Optometry and Vision Science and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation in the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences at Ulster University. Her research examines the impact of vision on child development, learning, health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on refractive error, visual function and eye care for individuals with developmental disabilities. Through clinical, translational and population-based research, she seeks to improve access to effective eye care and reduce unmet visual need among underserved populations. She is a member of the WHO Global Burden for Disease (GBD) study Vision Loss expert group. Her work has demonstrated how visual impairment can influence educational attainment, behaviour and quality of life, positioning vision as both a clinical and global public health issue. She has secured over £5.4M funding from organisations including the Wellcome Trust, NIHR and Alzheimer’s Society and has published extensively in leading ophthalmology and vision science journals.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Brendan Kelly will deliver this year’s Gill Maxwell Alumnus Talk. Brendan was appointed to the 2nd ICAT cohort in 2018 and we are extremely proud of his achievements.

Dr Brendan S. Kelly is a radiologist and clinician scientist whose research focuses on the safe and effective use of artificial intelligence in clinical imaging, particularly in children. He is currently a Fellow in Cardiac Radiology in Bristol and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Computer Science at University College Dublin. He recently received a HRB Research in Practice Fellowship and was the European Society of Radiology Researcher of the year in 2025.
Brendan completed his PhD at UCD’s Insight Centre for Data Analytics, developing AI methods for detecting change in longitudinal imaging in Multiple Sclerosis. His training includes a Fulbright-HRB fellowship at Stanford University, a fellowship in paediatric radiology and AI at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and an ASPIRE fellowship in advanced oncologic imaging at Children’s Health Ireland.
His research spans quantitative imaging, multimodal AI, methodological quality, cybersecurity and patient safety. His current research programme aims to integrate imaging, genomic and clinical information to improve prediction of outcomes in childhood cancer. He contributed to international multisociety guidance on safe AI implementation in paediatric radiology, serves as Deputy Editor for AI at European Radiology on the European Society of Paediatric Radiology’s AI Task Force.

Continuing the exchange of ideas in an informal setting, please join us for a reception after today’s talks.