Ann Marie Gray is Co-Director of ARK, and Professor of Social Policy in Ulster University. Her research interests are in the area of health and social care policy, policy making in Northern Ireland, gender and social policy and social attitudes.

Paula Devine is Co-Director of ARK, and is Director of the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey.  She also coordinates of the ARK Ageing Programme, which supports engagement between the age, policy and academic sectors. 

Paula's PhD focused on the measurement of mental health and masulinity.  Her research interests focus on quantitative research methods; measuring social attitudes; dissemination of social research; men's health; masculinity and gender.

Dr. Gemma Carney joined the ARK Ageing team in January 2014, and is a Reader in Social Policy and Ageing in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast (QUB).

Gemma trained as a political scientist, specialising in gender equality policy (TCD, 2004). A stint as Policy Analyst at the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament in 2007 introduced her to social policy for older people, and she has never looked back.

She teaches ageing at undergraduate and postgraduate level and is Disciplinary Lead for Social Policy at QUB. Her work has been published in Age, Culture, Humanities, Journal of Aging Studies, Gender and Society, European Journal of Ageing, Journal of Women & Aging, and Ageing & Society, of which she is a member of the editorial board.

Alexandra Chapman is ARK Policy Director, and is a lecturer at Ulster University, School of Applied Social and Policy Studies. Her research interests are in the area of adult social care, childcare and family policy. 

Her PhD on adult social care was supported by the ARK Ageing Programme. Her work has been published in Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Journal of Integrated Care and Health and Social Care in the Community.

Erin Early is a Lecturer in Social Policy at Ulster University, and Director of the Kids' Life and Times survey. She previously held Research Fellow positions at University College London and Queen’s University Belfast. Erin’s research interests are centred around secondary data analysis and social inequalities, particularly in education, health and the family.

Ciara Fitzpatrick is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at Ulster University. Her research interests are social security law, with a particular interest in the impact of law and policy on women and children. Ciara is the Vice-Chair of the NI Anti-Poverty Network and Chair of the All-Island Social Security Network.

Sinéad currently works as part of the ARK team, and is based at Ulster University.  She works closely with:

• INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute), 
• CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet), 
• Conflict Textiles (An associate project of INCORE), 
• Dr Nigel Glenny (Site Director for Augsburg CGEE NI).

Sinéad studied at the Ulster University where she graduated with a BA Hons degree in Business Studies has been employed by the University since 2004 .

Adrian Grant is a Lecturer in Politics at Ulster University and is currently the CAIN Transformation Project Lead. His current research focuses on the everyday experience of conflict and division in urban settings. Much of his work focuses on the conflict in, and about, Northern Ireland. He has worked extensively in research on the legacy of conflict, particularly on the role of oral history and urban policy in addressing division.

Jonny is Assistant Survey Manager, working across ARK's three attitudinal surveys. He is a scholar-practitioner with considerable experience of quantitative and qualitative interdisciplinary attitudinal research, especially in relation to the agri-food, conservation and tourism sectors. He is particularly interested in the social aspects of conservation, climate and agriculture, and how these relate to other social processes, including peacebuilding.

Goretti Horgan is a senior lecturer in Social Policy at Ulster University. Her research interests are child rights and women’s rights, especially child poverty, welfare reform and poverty among disabled people.

Elizabeth Martin became a member of the ARK Ageing Team in 2014 when she was awarded additional funding to support her in completion of her PhD.  She is now a lecturer and Social Policy Programme Director in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast.

Her research interests are mainly around giving a voice to marginalised populations.  Her PhD was on older women and domestic abuse, and her MA on people who were disabled as a result of the Conflict in Northern Ireland.

Mike McCool began his career at Ulster University in 1990 as a Research Assistant on the Ulysses Project at the Magee campus, following the completion of his first degree at the age of 31. He went on to serve as a Computer Officer within the Faculty of Engineering and was seconded to the Interactive Systems Centre (ISC) from 1993 to 1997, where he worked as a Research Officer and ICT Manager on the TALENT Project.

In 1997, Mike was seconded to INCORE/ARK, where he played a key technical role for a decade before transitioning into a permanent position as ICT Manager in 2007. Over the years, he has contributed to a wide range of research and public engagement initiatives, particularly in the areas of conflict, politics, and social policy.

Mike brings extensive technical expertise to his role, with experience spanning system administration (Unix), database administration, website development, graphic and multimedia design, audio/visual production, systems programming, and technical support. He has also contributed to various academic and public-facing publications.

Currently, he is actively involved in several high-profile projects, including ACCOUNTS of the CONFLICT, INCORE, ARK, and CAIN, where his broad skill set supports both the development and delivery of innovative digital resources and platforms.

Martina McKnight is the Survey manager within ARK and is primarily involved with the Young Life and Times and Kids' Life and Times surveys.

Her research interests include gender, young people, conflict and transition in Northern Ireland and qualitative methods.

Professor Dirk Schubotz has been with ARK since January 2003. He is a Professor in Social Policy, based at the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen's University Belfast.

Dirk's main responsibility in ARK is to look after Young Life and Times and ARK in Schools , but he has also been involved in the creation of ARK's qualitative archive on ageism (www.ark.ac.uk/niqa) and in the design and delivery of research methods training activities specifically designed to support voluntary sector organisations.

Dirk's main research interests lie in the development and application of participatory research methods - in particular work with peer researchers; in biographical methods; sexual health; community relations; as well as more generically in young people.

Dirk's PhD thesis focused on the professional biographies of teachers involved in the small planned integrated school sector in Northern Ireland.

Gillian Robinson is Emeritus Professor of Social Research and ARK Associate at Ulster University. Based in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, Gillian worked with colleagues to establish ARK as a cross-university resource (with Queen’s University Belfast) providing access to social and political information on Northern Ireland in 2000.  She has been involved in the monitoring of social attitudes in Northern Ireland since 1989 and was co-director of the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey series. She led the ARK Ageing Programme at Ulster University.

Gillian co-ordinated the Accounts of the Conflict project www.ulster.ac.uk/accounts, a digital archive of personal accounts of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland. This archive is a valuable new addition to the CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet www.cain.ulster.ac.uk) web resource. Gillian worked closely with INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute www.ulster.ac.uk/incore) where she was Director 2003-2008.

Her research interests include peace monitoring, social attitudes, gender roles, policy development in transition and research methodology including issues around researching violent societies and comparative methods.  She has published extensively on these issues and has led teams that have developed over 40 online publicly accessible databases. She is the 2003 Eisenhower Fellow from Northern Ireland.