Dr Karen McCarthy is an Intellectual Property (IP) Commercialisation Manager in University College Cork, Ireland. She has a BSc Hons degree in Microbiology, a PGDip in Technology Commercialisation and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology. Her professional career has focused on the interface between research and industrial development, and the impact realised across the wider ecosystem in collaboration with public/private stakeholders, both nationally and internationally.

She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Life and Health Science Committee, an I-CORPS@SFI Academy Instructor and an alumnus of the Advance HE Aurora program, in addition to developing Ireland’s first digital badge programme in intellectual property management for the research community.

In relation to the Fulbright award, she will be hosted in Duke University, North Carolina. Her research will focus on an analysis of the Irish and US university innovation ecosystems, and the influence of systemic and demographic factors in supporting innovation.