Librarian-Led Research Dissemination: Innopharma Insights as a Catalyst for Life Sciences Scholarship

Abstract

Presented at the Consortium of National & University Libraries (CONUL) conference, May 27th 2026, Galway. Innopharma Insights (Volume 1, January 2025; Volume 2, January 2026) was launched to champion student and staff research in pharmaceutical business, medical devices, food science, and digital transformation. This initiative addresses key gaps in specialised education by creating an accessible platform for disseminating high-quality, sector-specific scholarship that bridges academia and industry. The project assembled a dedicated editorial team comprising the Head of Academic Programmes, Head of Teaching & Learning, and expert lecturers. Contributors transformed their own MSc dissertations (e.g., sustainable green inhalers, psychobiotics for mental health treatment) and capstone projects into scholarly journal articles supported by tailored library guides on academic writing, scholarly communication, literature searching, and personalised one-to-one mentoring sessions. Submission calls yielded high-impact content: interviews (President Orla Callan on "The Innopharma Way"), sustainability critiques, food innovation showcases, educational insights, and regulatory analyses, all reviewed by an expert editorial team. This initiative directly supports research by demystifying publishing for mature and part-time learners, building skills in research and academic writing while disseminating outputs via the institutional repository. Attendees will explore replicable strategies: team assembly, dissertation-to-article pipelines, and encouraging article submission, empowering libraries to drive collaborative research and transformative futures in specialised education.