Dublin City University Marks 2026 Awards With 12 Engagement Wins and a Wider Community Message
dublin city university used its 2026 President’s Awards for Engagement to spotlight something larger than a ceremony: a pattern of civic work stretching from schools and student policy to mental health, climate learning, and community innovation. The awards were announced on Thursday 2 April 2026 in the SOLAS room of the U Building at DCU Glasnevin Campus, with the President thanking entrants and the judging panel. The list of winners shows how the university is positioning engagement as a practical part of academic life rather than an add-on.
What the 2026 awards reveal about dublin city university
The strongest signal from the 2026 awards is the breadth of the projects being recognised. The winners included Leadership of Dublin Maker Festival, described as national community innovation outreach since 2014; Student Led Civic Engagement in National Education Policy; and Humanities and Social Sciences Solidarity in Action-IRIN, which links Ballymun YouthReach, Rialto Canal Communities, the Local Drug and Alcohol Task Force, and Balbriggan Sustainable Energy Community.
That range matters because it shows engagement at multiple levels at once: institutional, student-led, and community-based. The awards also included Special Merit recognition in the student category and a contribution to civic-industry engagement through ENFUSE 2025 Finals, involving Dublin City Council, the Irish Student Consulting Group, the China Global Finance & Leadership Programme, and DCU Age-friendly University Digital Clinic & ECIU Ambassador.
Why this moment matters now
The timing of the announcement is important because it follows another major DCU milestone: spring graduations. On Friday 27 March, three ceremonies took place in Mahony Hall in The Helix, featuring students from DCU’s five faculties. That context matters because the awards and graduations together frame the university’s public message around outcomes, contribution, and community reach.
In the university’s own framing, the awards reflect the impact of staff and student engagement with the wider community. Professor Dáire Keogh, President of Dublin City University, said the awards reflect DCU’s values as a University of Place and a pioneer in civic and community engagement. He added that this year’s entries showed the continued depth of commitment across all sections of DCU to impactful engagement with partners and local communities. The wording is notable: it positions engagement not as symbolic outreach, but as a core institutional value.
Inside the award themes: community, learning, and service
The projects recognised suggest that dublin city university is rewarding forms of engagement that connect learning with public purpose. Several winners focus on direct community participation: 12ish talks of Christmas: Lectures for LauraLynn 2025; DCU Staff and Glasnevin Community Spinathon for Pieta House; Inclusive learning and social engagement programmes; and Crafting Climate: Collage and Zine-making for Science Week and NI Science Fest, engaging communities with climate change.
Other winners show a strong policy and partnership dimension. Student Led Civic Engagement in National Education Policy places students inside national debate rather than outside it. Community engagement through Think Languages Week with non-profit partner Mother Tongues shows another model: cultural outreach built through collaboration. Taken together, the awards point to a university culture where civic activity is spread across disciplines and roles rather than concentrated in one office or one faculty.
Expert perspectives from the ceremony
Professor Dáire Keogh’s remarks provide the clearest institutional reading of the awards. His description of DCU as a University of Place suggests that geography, community ties, and responsibility to local partners are being treated as defining features of the university model. The phrase also implies a two-way relationship: DCU is not simply serving communities from a distance, but embedding itself in them.
Another layer comes from the named DCU academics and students associated with the institution’s wider public work. Prof Tomás Ward, AIB Chair of Data Analytics at DCU’s School of Computing and a member of the Research Ireland funded Insight – Ireland’s Data Analytics research centre, and Dr Fiona Murphy of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies were both identified in the awards material. Their inclusion underscores that the engagement agenda spans research, teaching, and creative practice. Students Muhammad Shaharyar Bin Irfan, studying Law and History, and Swetha Shankar Ganesh Moorthi, who recently completed a Master’s in Accounting and Finance, were also named in the ceremony material, reinforcing the student-facing dimension of the awards.
Regional and wider impact beyond the campus
The broader effect of these awards is straightforward: they show how university engagement can spill into civic life, public services, and local networks. Projects involving Dublin City Council, Jigsaw Youth Mental Health Services, Gheel Autism Services, National Educational Psychological Services, Ballymun YouthReach, and community organisations in Ballymun, Rialto, and Balbriggan indicate a regional footprint that reaches beyond the campus boundary.
For the wider university sector, the 2026 awards may also serve as a reminder that public trust is increasingly shaped by visible contribution. Engagement that includes senior frontline staff capability in community organisations, or work with local partners, schools, and alumni, helps position the university as a civic actor. In that sense, dublin city university is presenting a model where impact is measured not only in degrees awarded, but in relationships built and public needs addressed.
The question now is whether the momentum behind dublin city university’s engagement model will deepen further in the year ahead, and whether more institutions will treat this kind of civic commitment as central rather than supplementary.
