The Cell EXPLORERS Network
The Cell EXPLORERS national network is made of 13 teams constituted of members from 10 Institutions in Ireland: 9 Higher Education Institutions and 1 research centre. The 13 Cell EXPLORERS teams visit schools around their localities, with an emphasis of activities around Science Week. Science Foundation Ireland is funding our national network through Discover strategic partnership Award. All our regional teams are supported locally by their institutions. A widening participation project is now funded by the Medtronic Foundation.
University of Galway and its Foundation office have been supporting Cell EXPLORERS activities, including our international collaboration with the University of Katzulu-Natal.
How to learn more about your local Cell EXPLORERS teams?
Click on the link to their team page below!
How to request a school visit?
Find out which team is the closest to your school, go to their team page and find their contact details. You can also find the teams email address on the CONTACT US site.
If your school is far away from one of our teams, we might not be able to visit you in person. Since 2020, we have the ability to visit schools remotely through live onlline visits. Some of our teams are resuming in person visit in the classroom or on their campus.
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Cell EXPLORERS UKZN
International collaboration
Cell EXPLORERS MU
(currently not active)
Summary Activity reports
Click on the year below to access the corresponding summary reports.
A short history of the Cell EXPLORERS network expansion:
In 2015 and 2016, 4 teams based in the University of Limerick, Athlone Institute of Technology, the Institute of Technology, Tralee and Dundalk Institute of Technology have joined the University of Galway team to form the first part of the Cell EXPLORERS network. You can find the infographic of the national Fantastic DNA roadshow 2016-17 here!
In May 2017, 5 more teams have joined us and have been trained at the Fantastic DNA session by visiting local primary schools. The new teams are based in Letterkenny IT, the UCD National Virus Reference Laboratory, Maynooth University, IT Carlow, and University College Cork. You can find the visual summary of the network activities in 2017-18 here!
In 2019, our network welcomed 3 new teams based in Cork IT, Limerick IT and GMIT as well as a team-based in FutureNeuro, the SFI research centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases. FutureNeuro involves members of 5 higher education institutions (RCSI, TCD, DCU, UCD and University of Galway). The details of the coordination of these teams will soon be added to this website. The Maynooth University team has stopped its activity.
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This same year, we have started a collaboration with Dr Doras Sibanda, in the University of Kwatzulu-Natal in South Africa. Our first international partner team is currently piloting the Fantastic DNA school visits.
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