Chair of the NI Region Jonathan Hegan welcomed President Sean Finlay by video link and attendees to a meeting of the NI Region held in Catalyst, Titanic Quarter, Belfast on the 22nd October 2026.
Seamus McKeague, David Dumigan, Danny McCaughan, Su Taylor, Jonathan Hegan, Antonia Pilar Fernandez Ibanez, John McCanny, Gillian Gregg RAE.
Jonathan thanked Gillian Gregg of the Royal Academy of Engineering for attending to brief members on the progress of arrangements for the upcoming Euro-CASE Conference in Belfast. He also welcomed new Fellows Su Taylor and Antonia Pilar Fernandez Ibanez to the meeting.
Tom Leahy, Special Advisor circulated a detailed report to all in advance of the meeting. Honorary Secretary David Dumigan and President Sean Finlay then highlighted some of the activities of the Academy since the last Northern Region Meeting. The current Five-Year Strategic Plan comes to an end in December. One of the main achievements has been the increase in female membership from 5% to 18.5%. We now need to think about the next Five-Year Plan. A draft will be circulated for member’s input.
There have been interesting Site Visits to the Tyndall Institute in Cork organised by the Southern Region and to HP Enterprises in Galway organised by the Western Region. There has also been a very interesting briefing by Uisce Eireann (Irish Water) in Clyde Road on the water supply network in Ireland.
Eamonn O’Reilly has stepped down as Chair of the Energy & Climate Action Committee and Immediate Past President Seamus McKeague has stepped in as temporary Chair. This has been a very active committee with two recent well publicised reports on Ireland’s energy.
Gillian Gregg gave a comprehensive update of arrangements for the upcoming Euro-CASE Conference in Belfast jointly co-hosted by RAE and IAE. There are currently 276 people registered to attend the Conference. Gillian was confident that the target of 300 could be achieved. She briefed the meeting on a “Resilience Game” for the conference that was attracting media attention. Gillian confirmed that Frank Feighan TD from the Irish Government would speak at the conference and that a video message from European Commissioner Michael McGrath had been received and would be played. Gillian said that representatives from the British and Northern Ireland Governments had been approached and confirmation on attendance was awaited.
David Dumigan and John McCanny briefed the meeting on the Parsons Medal Award 2026. The Parsons Medal was awarded to Dr. Michael Guinee of Ei Electronics at Birr Castle on 20th October by President Sean Finlay and Lady Alicia Clements of the Parsons family. Members were encouraged to propose suitable candidates for the 2027 parsons medal and an official call for nominations will be circulated early next year.
The chair thanked the NI Region members for actively supporting the work of the Academy and looked forward to the next meeting planned for early next year.