COVID-19 changed everything for everyone across the world.

Governments introduced changes and restrictions which few of us previously imagined were thinkable. They also engaged universities and the science and research communities to understand the challenges and to find a meaningful response. 

As we begin to emerge from the urgent public health crisis and look towards rebuilding, ‘what did we learn and what must we learn?’ are not just academic questions, they are vital for all of us to be able to answer for the future of society.

09:45 Welcome - Professor Paul Bartholomew, Vice-Chancellor

10:00 The Contribution of Scientific Research

Professor Tony Bjourson - Director of the Northern Ireland Centre for Stratified Medicine led the Ulster University COVID-19 Task Force that incorporated the COVID-19 viral screening and serology testing as a member of the Northern Ireland COVID-19 Testing Scientific Advisory Consortium. This consortium reported to the Department of Health through the Expert Advisory Group on Testing. The consortium was composed of Ulster University, the Queen's University of Belfast, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and the Almac Group.

Synopsis: I am extremely proud of Ulster University’s academic, clinical and public partnerships that has enabled us to address the urgent societal need of developing rapid testing and tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the outset, we assembled an Ulster COVID-19 Task Force, and we were supported by generous public donations that enabled the purchase of vital equipment to develop and roll-out new COVID-19 virus and antibody testing across Northern Ireland. A Northern Ireland COVID-19 Testing Scientific Advisory Consortium composed of Ulster University, the Queen's University of Belfast, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and the Almac Group was also established at the request of the Department of Health to assist viral testing. In partnership with the Western Health & Social Care Trust (WHSCT) Laboratories and C-TRIC based at Altnagelvin Hospital, we continue to expand specialist testing and we are recruiting and training additional scientific teams to undertake high throughput COVID-19 screening during the ongoing pandemic.It is still unclear why some COVID-19 infected individuals experience only mild or no symptoms, while others have severe symptoms with rapid disease progression and death in the worst cases. We know our genes can determine what diseases we are at risk of developing, how severe our symptoms will be, and indeed what treatments each of us are personally likely to respond to - that is the core focus of our personalised medicine team. Our personalised medicine team, in partnership with Trinity College Dublin recruited 1000 patients across Ireland and we are sequencing or reading the patients genomes (in partnership with Genuity Science) to find out which of our individual genes influence COVID-19 disease severity. This will also enable the development of more advanced tests and personalised medicine treatments.

Dr David Gibson - Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences, David's talk will cover highlights from several Northern Ireland based studies of COVID-19 which give insight into the proportions of the population who have been infected, the persistence of immune system memory and protection from the virus.

Colum Walsh - Professor of Genetics in the School of Biomedical Sciences.

Synopsis: Is it fair to say we were unprepared for a new disease like COVID-19? Or truer to say we were unprepared for the scale of the problem? In the nerve-wracking period that preceded the development of viable vaccines, enormous energy was poured into trying to limit the spread of infection through testing and tracing. It was not that we did not know what to do in order to test and trace, but rather that attempting to do them at such scale brought significant logistical problems not previously anticipated. It was this step-change in magnitude which forced in the end the development of new technologies and approaches. Having worked at both testing and tracing at ground level alongside my clinical colleagues through this period, I have seen how problems around supply chains, requirements for rapid turnaround and the limitations of existing software and reporting systems bedeviled efforts at the beginning of the crisis, and how over time these problems have been surmounted and solved. Going forward it will be important to build on what we have learnt regarding redundancy in supply, flexibility in platforms and the ability to handle huge amounts of data in rapid yet reliable fashion. Importantly, it has also underscored the importance of academic/clinical partnerships to bridge the cultural divide separating us and allow the rapid application of cutting-edge techniques. Further, we need to continue to build local provision, both in technology and training, to provide for future resilience.

11:30 The Impact on Mental Health

Siobhan O’Neill is a Professor of Mental Health Sciences at Ulster University, and Interim Mental Health Champion for Northern Ireland. In this session Siobhan will discuss what we know about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of people in Northern Ireland, including the impact on people with caring responsibilities, the economic impact and the impact on children and young people. She will examine the impact of the infection itself and long COVID, the effects of the restrictions, and the impact on health services, staff and mental health services.

12:30 Break

14:00 The Impact on our Economy

Dr Gareth Hetherington is Director of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre. Gareth will provide an overview of recent Economic Policy Centre research, which will include analysis of those in society most impacted by COVID-19 and discussion of changes in the labour market. He will also outline the prospects for the local economy as we recover from the pandemic and provide some insights on the longer-term implications for key sectors.

Response by Esmond Birnie, Senior Economist (Economic Research), Department of Accounting, Finance & Economics

15:00 Young People and Youth Work: Risk and Resilience under COVID-19

Dr. Gail Neill - lecturer in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, will present findings from the COVID under 19 global study conducted by the Centre for Children’s Rights (QUB)

Eliz McArdle - lecturer in community youth work, will present the words of local young people and how youth work responded to these challenges.

Dr Breda Friel - lecturer in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, will examine how crisis and trauma recovery and management theory offers a knowledge base in understanding COVID-19.

16:00 Close

Jenny Pyper - Chair of Ulster University Council