Robbie Gilligan is Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. He has published widely on a range of issues relating to provision for children and young people in state care. He is co-principal investigator of the six country study ‘Care to Work Pathways’.  In his earlier career, he has been a youth worker, social worker and foster carer. Professor Gilligan is a member of the Board of the European Scientific Association for Residential and Family Care, and a member of INTRAC - The International Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the journals, Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Indicators Research, European Journal of Social Work, Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies and Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care and of the Advisory Boards of the journals, Children and Society and Adoption and Fostering. He also serves on advisory groups for current research studies in Autonomous University of Barcelona, Porto Polythecnic Institute, Queen’s University, Belfast and University of Oxford