October saw the beginning of the first cohort in our first Innopharma Education independently accredited programmes. This was a huge step for the college and is hopefully just the beginning of many independently run programmes for the future. A huge congratulations to all who were involved in this, it is a credit to our organisation and a great sign of things to come.

Development of the Class Rep Hub as a resource for class reps. Launched in early November.

• 150 views recorded for the Class Rep Hub so far (Dec 2021)
• 34 class reps and 26 programme support staff currently enrolled in the Class Rep Hub
• 51 new class reps throughout the year across all programmes.

19 study skills resources and guides developed for the Learner Hub, using various software and formats.

3 Exam Preparation workshops delivered as part of the Exam Dry Run sessions; attended by 393 learners.

Accessibility toolbar researched and implemented allowing better accessibility for learners with disabilities.

Danielle O’Rourke – Learning Technologist – orourked@innopharmalabs.com

Alexandra Anton – Learner Support Co-Ordinator – antona@innopharmalabs.com

New workshop series launched in October for learners, titled “Academic & Study Skills Workshop Series”, composed of eight workshops developed and delivered by Alexandra and Colm. You can see the stats of this series below:

The Innopharma Online library was established and has an average of 740 views per week.

The following guides have been created and have approximately 1500 views to date:

• Academic Integrity
• Plagiarism
• Referencing
• Zotero
• Information Literacy
• Academic Writing
• Using and navigating the online library
• Open Educational Resources
• Sage Journals
• EBSCO Business Source Premier
• PubMed
• Finding Full-Text Articles
• Google Scholar

The Innopharma Library catalogue was launched and includes books on topics such as referencing, academic writing, study skills and stress management, all of which can be accessed 24/7

The library has worked with the Learning Support coordinator to deliver a series of workshops to students over the first semester. These have proved very popular with close to 200 attendees and over 400 views of the recordings.

The library has given classes to a number of cohorts (totaling over 700 students) from L6 to L9 on topics including academic integrity, referencing, academic writing, information literacy literature searching and Turnitin.

The library gave induction talks to all incoming Innopharma students.

A curated collection of high-quality Open Access Resources has been developed and is available to learners via the Online library.

We ran a series of CPD sessions for staff in the following areas:

• GoToTraining:
  Breakout Rooms, Polls, Tests

• Innoskills Transition Sessions,
• Zoom Training Sessions – Griffith,
• Innoskills & Zoom Orientation,
• Taking the Pain out of Grading – How to Write and Use Analytic Rubrics, with Head of Teaching & Learning,
• Accessibility in Online Teaching & Working with Learner Support Co-Ordinator,
• Feedback Strategies for Large Class Sizes, with Head of Teaching & Learning,
• Zoom Workshops/Drop-Ins,
• Bitesize:
  Breakout Rooms, Polls, Whiteboard & Annotation,
  
  
• Automated Assessment,
• Spark Sessions:
  Menti, Miro,
  
  
• 1-to-1 and small group Inductions for all new teaching staff

We have been reaping the fruits of our labour in Q4 with Eyecon^{2 TM} as a number of developments have come to pass including return to in person trade shows and conferences in the USA with our distributor Horiba who recently showcased our PAT instrument at the American Association of Pharmacuetical Scientists conference (AAPS) in Philadelphia. Also for 1^st time ever we demonstrated our new Eyepass software to the Horiba Sales team which relies of Artificial Intelligence to perform image analysis and greatly expands the applications of Eyecon². They are an experienced expert group in particle characterisation across may sector and its great to get this scrutiny.  The year for Eyecon² is all nicely finished off with a shipment in December of a shiny new Eyecon² to a repeat customer,  Pfizer in Groton US. 

We fondly remember our former colleague Kevin McCarthy who passed away following a short illness in September this year, Kevin was all-round nice guy, and very unique character! As the action shot of Kevin in our lab shows,

 Kevin was inquisitive by nature and was always destined to be an engineer, with a real talent for off-the-wall, but effective solutions to technical challenges.

His encyclopaedic knowledge on a bizarre range of niche interests, from the US electoral college, to 3D printing, Pokemon Go, and military strategy (it’s safe to say that thanks to Kev none of us who spent time working with him will ever make the error of starting a land-war in Asia!). He will be greatly missed.

TECHNICAL SERVICES UPDATES    

On the Validation front Cohort 17 commenced on Nov 8^th and are now well into the training programme. 

We have added a new client to our portfolio with two placements (James McCoy and Ollie Rooney) at Zoetis in Tullamore. Zoetis are an animal healthcare company who acquired the Nexvet plant in Tullamore in 2017.  Since then, the plant has had considerable investment and development and has commenced the manufacture of veterinary biopharmaceuticals.  Solensia, the first injectable monoclonal antibody licenced for alleviation of pain associated with osteoarthritis in cats has recently received approval from the EMA and will be a major product for the plant. Find out more about Zoetis development plans by clicking here.

Firstly, some baby news.  Huge congratulations to Stacey Carmody (Validation Engineer at Regeneron) on the arrival of Cillian on November 9^th💞. I’m sure Cillian is looking forward to his first Christmas.

A big congratulations to Shalini Thakur (QC Analyst at BMS) and her husband Adhiraj Dave on their wedding on December 6th.

Daniela Angione

I am Chemistry graduate from the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” (Italy) with a MSc in Analytical Chemistry. I obtained a PhD in Chemistry of Innovative Materials from the same University, spending several months in secondment at the University of Texas at Austin (USA) within Prof. A. Dodabalapur’s research group. After my PhD I moved to the University of Manchester (UK) as a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow, working with Prof. K. Persaud, father of the “electronic nose”. I finally joined Trinity College Dublin, where I spent 8 years as Principal Investigator in the field of electronic sensors and point-of-care diagnostics. I independently raised about 1 Million Euro in national and European funding, and delivered lectures for the 3^rd and 4^th year Chemistry students in Trinity College Dublin. Finally, I have served as Expert Evaluator of grant proposals for the European Commission since 2018, and as Reviewer for several peer-reviewed international journals such as Nature Communications, Sensors, Materials, etc.

I currently work as a Research and Grants Officer in the Technology division, and responsible for European and National grants applications.

My main hobby is music: I am involved in an Irish-Italian musical project, making original music within the post-rock/dream-pop genre. I also really enjoy being outdoor hiking, cycling and swimming (in the Adriatic Sea!).

After finishing a BSc in Food Science in UCC I followed up with a Masters in Management in Smurfit UCD. I began working at Accenture, a consulting firm in Grand Canal Dock, Dublin. After two years there, I took a short break to China and ended up living and working in Shanghai for 4 years. I then did a marketing fellowship masters (again with Smurfit) and after a couple of years in Dubai and Antwerp moved back to Ireland.

I have started out working in various marketing positions in the technology sector and I am delighted to be back to the industry with Innopharma after a long time in the food industry.

Outside of work I spend most of my time with movies, cooking, GAA and arguing with my other half about the thermostat.

I’m very happy to continue my career at Innopharma and it’s already been a pleasure to meet the wide range of people working here. I’m looking forward to meeting more in the future. 

Hi, I am Tessa,

I am from Mayo/Galway in the West of Ireland. I have achieved a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Bachelor of Business (Hons) with International Business degree, in the Galway Business School, both with first-class honours.

During the pandemic, as I was looking for jobs (and failed), I decided to go back to college and I studied my Master’s Degree in Business Analytics, in NUIG. My education was very important to me, as I have a visual impairment and with that comes challenges. I want to show people, that having a disability, shouldn’t stop you from achieving great things.

I have had jobs while in college in hospitality and retail, but now, I am doing something I love. Working at Innopharma as a data analysis coordinator and hitting my two months in this role, has made me so happy and grateful for the opportunity. I work with the nicest people and a team, who will support you. 2022, will hopefully be a good year, so if there is something you want to do – DO IT!! 

Joan Toner

Hello, my name is Joan Toner.   I recently joined Innopharma Education working with the Limerick Regional Team.

I am originally from Co Kildare and moved to Ennis,  Co Clare some years ago.   I began my career in HR working for Dublin based company BWG Foods and continued in this field of work when I moved to the West.   I took a career break for some years to raise my family and recently returned to the workforce in 2018 joining the Software Development Centre of Jaguar Land Rover in Shannon,  assisting with their major recruitment drive.

I enjoy volunteering with our local GAA club and dabble a bit with Interior Decorating.   I am looking forward to working with everyone on the Innopharma Education Team

I am a science graduate from UCC. My BSc is in Neuroscience, and I furthered this with a PhD from the Neuroscience and Physiology Dept, specializing in inflammation and muscle function in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. After a postdoctoral project in the Physiology Dept, I wanted to move into the manufacturing industry in Cork.

I completed Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturing (SPA) with Innopharma Education in Cork in 2015 and started my role in the QC labs in Merck (Millipore), I worked as a validation technician, testing PPQ batches and developing tests on a spectrophotometer. I moved from this role to a Quality Engineer role in Depuy Synthes in operations, a fast-paced dynamic role! After this, I worked in MSD Brinny on the tech transfer of their new vaccines until 2020.

I took a career break in early 2020 as we had welcomed a baby boy to our family, we welcomed another baby girl earlier this year! When I get the time, I like to garden, crochet (lockdown project!), go camping and keep up with current affairs. I was delighted with the opportunity to join the team, especially as it was fundamental in me gaining employment in the industry back in 2015, a full circle moment!

I am delighted to join Innopharma Education and hope to meet everyone soon.

SOCIAL FUN!

November 17th saw the return of our first in-person all hands meeting since 2019! What a fantastic day of catching up with co-workers we may not have seen in months as well as welcoming the new staff who joined remotely throughout the pandemic! It was great to discuss our achievements to date as well as our exciting plans for growth in the future. One thing that is very clear is that Innopharma has seen huge growth in recent years and this is expected to continue in the coming years, very exciting times ahead! 

See Ciaran and Ian below for the turning on of the Christmas lights ceremony a few weeks ago in the office!

We hope you all enjoyed Fridays Christmas party! It sounded like a very eventful evening and was great crack for all who attended! Thank you to Mary Jane and Danielle for organising and thank you to all who attended. 

Big thank you to Innopharma and Mary Jane for organising our Christmas hampers this year, what a beautiful surprise to brighten up everyone's day after another tough lead up to Christmas!