Dr Sinead Furey

Overview

Dr Sinéad Furey is a Lecturer on the consumer management and food innovation undergraduate degree programme in the Department for Hospitality and Tourism Management. Sinéad studied consumer studies at Ulster University (1998) and completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in food poverty researching the characteristics, extent and location of food deserts in both rural and urban areas of Northern Ireland in 2001. She completed her Postgraduate Certificate in management studies at Queen’s University Belfast (2005) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Sinéad joined Ulster in 2013 having worked previously in consumer, food and nutrition policy in the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, Education and Training Inspectorate, and the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland.

Her primary research interests are food poverty, retail food promotions, promotion of food to young people, and social exclusion. She is the principal Investigator of a safefood-funded research grant (£209,000) investigating the balance of healthy versus less healthy food promotions among Republic of Ireland food retailers.

Sinéad was part of a research team for the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland-funded (£108,000) three-stage investigation into the balance of healthy versus less healthy food promotions among Northern Ireland food retailers. She lectures on food and consumer policy and legislation and co-ordinates modules for consumer law and global food issues. She also teaches business-related modules on marketing and management.

Sinéad supervises a PhD student identifying a fit for purpose indicator to measure the extent of food poverty in Northern Ireland. She represents Ulster University on the Belfast Food Network Advisory Group and Belfast Food Network Food Poverty Working Group.

Sinéad also holds a Ministerial appointment as a Board member of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland and is the Independent consumer representative on the Northern Ireland Food Chain Certification Committee.