Martina Prendergast

Dr. Martina Prendergast obtained her PhD in Clinical Microbiology in 1999 from NUI Galway. She took up a post with Lero in April 2020, as International Funding Manager. Since 2016 she has worked as a Research Officer in the Research Office in the University of Limerick (UL), mainly covering the Environment, Marine and Energy remit, and providing training on grant proposal writing to researchers. Prior to this role (from 2010 – 2016) she was the Strategic Development Manager of the Ryan Institute for Environment, Marine and Energy research at National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway with responsibilities for the academic and technical development of the Institute. Her duties involved strategic planning and policy, securing research funding, research management, input to teaching and learning programmes, and outreach and communication.  From 2002 – 2010 she held the position of Development Manager of the Environmental Change Institute at NUI Galway. Before that, she secured a Career Development Award from the Health Research Board and worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and as a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, NUI Galway. During her research career her research interests included the spread of infectious disease in contaminated food and water and vaccine development. She has authored over 20 international peer-reviewed journal articles, several book chapters, hundreds of academic reports, and contributed to Irish government-commissioned reports on the development of Environment-related policy.