��ɫ��Ƶ

Dr Jennifer McMahon, Head of the Department of Psychology at ��ɫ��Ƶ, has been appointed as an Executive Member of the prestigious Young Academies Science Advice Structure (YASAS).

YASAS is a network of 22 young academies across Europe, created to allow early- and mid-career researchers to provide scientific advice to inform government policy.

Dr McMahon has the honour of being the first Irish academic to be appointed to the YASAS leadership. The global network consists of a group of targeted scholars and innovators in the early and mid-stages of their careers, who have been selected for their research excellence, impact and their commitment to public service. 

Her role with YASAS allows Dr McMahon the opportunity to work with academic peers across the world, to directly feed into science advice. Academics are given the opportunity to review policy documentation, to write reviews and recommendations and contribute in several different ways to the advancement of science policy and practice. 

“I think the beauty of these networks is that we are interdisciplinary and collaborative, and we're utilising different disciplines and different expertise to work on big societal challenges,” said Dr McMahon.

Globally, YASAS is one of six academy networks that form the ‘Science Advice for Policy by European Academies’ (SAPEA), to provide high quality review of the evidence to inform the policy recommendations made by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. 

In addition to Dr McMahon’s role with YASAS, she was also recently appointed to chair SAPEA’s Working Group on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

Speaking about her role as chair, Dr McMahon said: “It's a real privilege to affect the structure of science advice in Europe and work to ensure that it's as equitable and inclusive as possible.”

“It's a passion of mine to create space for early and mid-career researchers to impact on policy and to create conduits and I’ve worked on that at national level. When you can take that to European level, it's an exciting opportunity to positively affect global science advice and policy’.

Dr McMahon is also the UK and European liaison with the Young Academy Ireland (YAI), part of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) where she led out on the development of the RIA EDI strategy which will be launched in Spring 2026.

Dr McMahon is also an Executive Committee Member of the International Association for Youth Mental Health, and an invited Expert Advisor for the International Science Council, and World Health Organisation.

As part of this year’s UL Research Week in April, Dr McMahon will host a session on Using Evidence to Influence Policy: Pathways for Early and Mid-Career Researchers alongside YAI colleagues Dr Karina Doorley, Economic and Social Research Institute, and Dr Kieran Walsh of the Health Information and Quality Authority.