Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Researchers & Academics

Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council and the Higher Education Authority are carrying out a national survey on the impact of COVID-19 on the working lives of academic staff, postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students in Ireland.

What is the purpose of the project?

The purpose is to (i) better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced your experience of work and wellbeing as a researcher and (ii) to disseminate the broader findings with institutions and research funders, with the objective of guiding their longer-term response to supporting researchers throughout and in the aftermath of the pandemic. The project is funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council and the Higher Education Authority.

Who’s invited to participate?

All doctoral students, researchers and academic staff usually residing in Ireland or currently working/studying in Ireland – YOUR VOICE IS VITAL!

Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Researchers & Academics

Before you decide whether to take part in this study, it is important for you to understand what it will involve:

Survey completion time: circa 15 minutes; participation is completely voluntary, but much appreciated!
Survey content: The questions relate to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on your work, challenges, and level of support experienced, and your mental health and wellbeing
Data handling and confidentiality: The survey is anonymous; therefore, in the qualitative text boxes, please do not include details that would reveal your identity. No set of responses are traceable back to any one individual and thereby the anonymity of respondents is preserved. The anonymous data will be stored electronically on the DCU Google Drive and will be additionally protected by secure DCU passwords known only to the principal investigator.
Data consent: Your completion of this online survey implies your consent to provide your data for our research. If at any time you have a question about your rights or options as a research participant, please contact us using the information on this page.
Follow-up study: We will send out a shorter follow-up study one year from now to understand the long-term impact of COVID-19. To do so, we need to match the data of respondents who consent to participate in both studies across the two time points. We will ask for the five digits of your mobile number at the end of this survey for the sole purpose of (a) linking the responses from this survey to those of the follow-up survey and (b) keeping the survey responses anonymous.
Possible risks: We do not foresee any risks in taking part in this survey. However, you are free to quit the survey at any time. Should you experience any anxiety or distress, please do not hesitate to contact AWARE’s freephone support line at 1800 80 48 48.
Possible benefits: You will be contributing to work designed to try to improve support and provision for researchers. By completing the survey, you will also have the chance to participate in a raffle to win a One4all voucher for the value of 200 Euro.

We strongly encourage you to participate in the survey as YOUR experience is VITAL in helping provide a representative view of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted researchers in Ireland and how to design policies and interventions to help researchers and academics during and after the pandemic.

If you have any questions regarding the research and/or wish to receive a report of the findings, please contact the principal investigator Professor Janine Bosak (DCU Business School), at Janine.bosak@dcu.ie.

If you have any concerns about this study and wish to contact an independent person, please contact:
The Secretary, Dublin City University Research Ethics Committee, c/o Research and Innovation Support, Dublin City University, Dublin 9. Tel 01-7008000, e-mail rec@dcu.ie