Research and Development

Council for Research and Development of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

This Council comes under the Episcopal Commission for Planning Communications and Resources

Contact details


Social Researcher
Council for Research & Development
Columba Centre
Maynooth
Co Kildare
Tel: +353 (0)1 5053000 Fax: +353 (0)1 6016401

Related Content

To view content on this site related to Research and Development, click on the following tag

Research

Members

The Council for Research & Development is currently composed of two episcopal members:

Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly SMA (Chair)

The Council draws from a variety of expertise to help inform the work of the Social Researcher.

About

The Council is an advisory body in support of the work of the Social Researcher. The Council for Research & Development is a Commission of the Irish Bishops’ Conference. It meets throughout the year to review the research projects and developmental work of the social researcher, who is based at the Columba Centre, Maynooth. It currently has nine members and reports to the Conference through the Department of Planning and Communications.

The Council for Research and Development was established in 1973 by the Irish Bishops’ Conference. The main function of this Council was to carry out large scale quantitative research projects on behalf of the Conference. In 1991 the Council’s work was re-oriented as a resource centre for the Conference. The work of the Council is now to update the Bishops on developments in religious and social research as well as carrying out the Annual Vocations Survey. In 2003, the office of the Council for Research and Development was re-located to the Columba Centre in Maynooth, Co Kildare, providing new opportunities to work with other Commissions and Agencies of the Irish Bishops’ Conference.

Work

The work of the Council is coordinated by the Social Researcher. The work of the Social Researcher principally consists of:

  • research projects on behalf of Conference members, individual Dioceses and other Commissions of the IBC
  • project development on behalf of the Commissions of the IBC and assisting with the development of projects with other agencies of the Church in Ireland
  • monitoring developments in social and economic policy in Ireland
  • The researcher compiles an annual vocations and personnel survey, produces an annual report and a quarterly research digest, Research Briefing. These documents are produced for public viewing and can be viewed and downloaded (mostly as PDF documents)