ProfMary Lynch

Mary Lynch is Full Professor and Executive Vice Dean for Research at The Faulty of Nursing and Midwifery (FNM) RCSI. She is a highly experienced academic researcher and is the strategic lead for research activity in the FNM. She is a Registered General Nurse (RGN), is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland in the general and tutors’ divisions of the Register. She holds a MSc in Sustainable Rural Development and a PhD in Health Economics both from Queens’s University Belfast. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA), and a trained Social Return on Investment (SROI) practitioner. She holds honorary visiting professor roles at the University of South Wales, and University of West of Scotland, providing health economic expertise for joint research projects and PhD studentships. Professor Lynch’s methodological expertise is in applying non-market valuation techniques; Stated and Revealed Preference techniques; incorporating Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Social Return on Investment (SROI), in estimation of social value of public health interventions. Her research interests span the areas of public health, environment, behaviour change and valuing public goods and services. As part of her transdisciplinary research expertise her portfolio of research extends to evaluation of nature-based solutions to address mental health and wellbeing, physical activity, use of community assets and rurality. Full list of publication is available at https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-6887-3447

She has successfully attracted funding from a range of sources and is joint Principle Investigator (PI) on one of eight NIHR projects (£20M programme) on extreme weather events “Warning system for Extreme weather events, Awareness Technology for Healthcare, Equitable delivery, and Resilience” (WEATHER) project (NIHR £2.29M) https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/nihr-awards-over-20-million-for-global-health-research-projects-focused-on-extreme-weather-challenges/35425. This is a collaborative project with University of KwaZulu-Natal that aims to develop an early warning system for extreme weather events such as flooding and heat in two vulnerable districts of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. In addition, Professor Lynch, is project co-lead on the UKRI funded project- Realising the health co-benefits of the transition to net zero funding opportunity (2024). (APP29811; The UK Hub for One Health Systems: Creating Sustainable Health and Social Care Pathways) (UKRI £6.5M) https://www.ukri.org/news/42m-funding-to-ensure-health-is-central-to-net-zero-strategies/.The project aims to develop new health and social care pathways hub by bringing together a range of university and healthcare partners throughout the UK, to tackle the challenge of helping the NHS become environmentally sustainable, to help meet its legal obligation to become net zero by 2045. Professor Lynch is a Reference group member for Water Research Commission, South Africa www.wrc.org.za Project Number: C2024/2025-01648. Project Title: Health Vulnerability in Flooding – In-depth exploration and testing a framework for health vulnerability when faced with extreme weather events.