CDIC Team Secures ReClaim Funding to Enhance Inclusion for Migrant Researchers

CDIC lecturers, teaching assistants, and the programme manager joined forces and won a seed fund from ReClaim – UCD Research Culture (funded by Wellcome Institutional Fund for Research Culture). This is the first research project based on collaboration between colleagues involved in CDIC teaching and management.

The team consists of Dr. Yunpeng Zhang, Dr. Caterina Villani, Ms. Toka Abdelmutleb, and Mr. Yiran Yue (Transport, City Planning, and Environmental Planning programme); Dr. Aasifa Rounak and Mr. Meiyazhagan Jaganathan (Automotive Engineering programme); Dr. Ekin Ozer (Civil Engineering Infrastructure programme); and Ms. Julia Janiszewska (Programmes Manager of the UCD China Joint Colleges Office).

Entitled “Arrival Infrastructures: Enabling the Inclusion of Migrant Knowledge Workers in Transnational Universities,” their project aims to identify how migrant faculty members and research students can be better supported in pursuing their research agendas through enhanced arrival infrastructures within globalising universities. 

Between May 2025 and April 2026, the team will conduct a series of focus groups and interviews with faculty members and students at both Belfield and the China joint colleges to better understand the opportunities and challenges of conducting impactful research. They will also develop concrete, scalable recommendations to promote an inclusive, collegial, and welcoming research culture.

We look forward to hearing more about their findings!