LTRN member, Mark Ward is one of six Irish researchers to be awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant 2025. This award provides €2 million in funding over a five-year period to support his research on loneliness from a global perspective.

Mark’s project – GLOMoL – Global study of the macro- and individual-level causes and consequences of loneliness, will bring together data from over 30 countries and a quarter of a million individuals. His team will use this unique data infrastructure to explore the reasons why we observe large differences in the prevalence and consequences of loneliness in different countries.

Crucially, Mark aims to move away from focusing solely on the characteristics and experiences of individuals in explaining loneliness, to a broader conceptualisation of the issue that recognises the importance of the context within which individuals live. This will provide new and important insights by identifying the cultural, economic, political and social factors that can be leveraged to protect individuals and societies against the worst effects of loneliness.

In announcing this award, Mark says “I am incredibly grateful to be awarded this prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for GLOMoL. This award provides a unique opportunity to build a novel global data infrastructure on the important public health issue of loneliness. With support to recruit a team of talented PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, GLOMoL will provide a new lens through which to understand how loneliness is shaped across different societies. This research will position Irish research, the GLOMoL team, and Trinity College Dublin, as world leaders in loneliness research”.

LinkedIn: @EuropeanResearchCouncil @Mark Ward @TILDA

Dr. Mark Ward is a Senior Research Fellow at The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin and member of the Loneliness Taskforce Research Network. His research focuses on social disconnection among older adults and its impact on health and well-being. Mark led TILDA’s COVID-19 sub-study examining pandemic impacts on older adults and currently serves as Principal Investigator on a U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded study exploring the link between social disconnection and passive suicide ideation. He has published extensively on loneliness, social isolation, mental health, and quality of life.