Open Access Research Publishing: Open Access Research Awards 2021

The 2021 HSE Open Access Research Awards were announced in an online ceremony from Dr Steevens' Hospital, Dublin on 22nd December 2021.

It was a year of unprecedented interest in the awards, and the judging panel had to be expanded to deal with the surge in entries.

This year's awards were in four categories:
Acute Care and Hospitals
Community and Social Care
Mental Health and Disabilities
Covid-19

There was also a prize for overall winner, and for the first time a Special Merit award for research which
particularly impressed the external judge.

The winners were:

Acute Care and Hospitals: Colum Dunne et al. "Biomarkers in delirium: A systematic review".

Community and Social Care: Katarzyna Gajewska et al."Prevalence and incidence of type 1 diabetes in
Ireland: a retrospective cross-sectional study using a national pharmacy claim.

Mental Health and Disabilities: Peter Barrett et al. "Potential alcohol use disorder among MSM in Ireland - Findings from the European MSM internet survey (EMIS 2017)".

Covid-19: Jacopo Villani et al. "A community-health partnership response to mitigate the impact of the COVID-
19 pandemic on Travellers and Roma in Ireland".

Special Merit Prize winner: Gautam Gulati et al. "Challenges for people with intellectual disabilities in law
enforcement interactions in Ireland; thematic analysis informed by 1537 person-years' experience".

Overall winner: Kieran Walsh et al. "SARS-CoV-2 detection, viral load and infectivity over the course of an
infection".

The awards were addressed by Dr Philip Crowley, National Director of Strategy and Research, who spoke about
the importance of making research freely available, especially in a pandemic. The external judge, Professor
Jonathan Drennan of UCC also spoke, discussing this year's winning entries and their findings.