DCU Anti-Bullying Centre (ABC) is a national university designated research centre located within DCU’s Institute of Education. The Centre is known globally for its research excellence in bullying and online safety. It is home to scholars with a global reputation as leaders in the field. The work of the Centre builds on 25 years of research in which they were the first in Ireland to undertake studies on school, workplace, homophobic and cyberbullying. Today, the Centre brings together over 50 researchers and PhD students from Ireland and abroad to create a critical mass of people with an expertise in tackling bullying, online safety, gaming and other related areas.

The Centre contributes to solving the real-world problems of bullying and online safety through collaboration with an extensive community of academic and industry partnerships. The extent of our resources and the collaboration between disciplines drive quality education, understanding and innovation in this field.

The objectives of the Centre are aligned to support the United Nations overarching goal to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030” (SDG4) and supports the implementation of the Government of Ireland’s Action Plan on Bullying (2022), Action Plan for Online Safety (2018-2019), Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (2018-2024), and the WRC/HSA Joint Code of Practice on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work (2021).

The Centre hosts the UNESCO Chair on Bullying and Cyberbullying and the peer reviewed International Journal of Bullying Prevention (Springer) which is published 4 times per year. Since 2018, the Centre has attracted €8.8 million in research funding from the EU, the Government of Ireland, the Irish Research Council, and Rethink Ireland, as well as significant funding from industry partners including Meta, Vodafone Foundation Ireland, and TikTok.

Researchers at the Centre are currently working on projects for four government departments and are represented on the National Advisory Council on Online Safety and the Government’s Steering Committee on Bullying.

The Centre has a combined FWCI of 2.7 which represents a significant scholarly and societal impact.