Prof Anne MacFarlane

Professor Anne MacFarlane is the first female, and only social science, Full Professor of academic primary care in Ireland. She is Co-Director of an interdisciplinary Participatory Health Research Unit, School of Medicine, University of Limerick (UL), which has a research income of over €20 million. Since 2019, Professor MacFarlane is Director of UL’s World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Participatory Health Research with Refugees and Migrant. She also has leadership roles in participatory health research in the North American Primary Care Research Group, the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research and the European Public Health Association. She is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the School of Medicine’s General Practice, Public Health and Primary Care Research group, Sláinte.

Professor MacFarlane has over 25 years' experience as a health services researcher with funding as Principal Investigator from the EU, HRB, IRC and HSE. She has extensive experience of national and international inter-disciplinary and inter-agency research collaborations. Her interests are participatory health research, implementation science and migrant health.

 In 2016, Professor MacFarlane initiated capacity building in UL’s Health Research Institute for meaningful involvement of patients and the public in health research. She led UL’s successful competitive bid for PPI Ignite funding (2017-2020) and is co-applicant for PPI Ignite@UL in the national PPI Ignite Network (2021-2026).

Professor MacFarlane has a strong record of graduate research supervision and research dissemination via international peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, research reports and policy briefs. She is also an experienced academic mentor.