The Child & Family Research Centre is a partnership between the Health Service Executive and National University of Ireland, Galway. Based in the School of Political Science and Sociology, the CRFC undertakes research, education and training in the area of child & family care and welfare.

The establishment of the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth & Civic Engagement in 2009, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland, will bring together University based research centres and national and international organisations with a shared goal of promoting civic engagement and leadership skills among children and youth.

The National Institute for Intellectual Disability is based at Trinity College and seeks to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disability and their families.  Formally established in 1998 and previously know as The National Institute for the Study of Learning Difficulties (NISLD), the NIID works to ensure that the basic human rights of people with intellectual disability are upheld.  The institute offers a certificate in contemporary living, which is Ireland's first full-time university course for people with learning disabilities.  The three key areas of the Institute's work are:

• Influencing Policy in all aspects of the lives of people with learning difficulties
• Developing education programmes focused on the lifelong learning needs of people with learning difficulties
• Undertaking high quality, multi-disciplinary research and creating a network of researchers

Public and private funding for the institute has been received from the Department of Education and Science, the Higher Education Authority, Special Olympics Ireland, the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Ireland Funds.