Dr. Mare Ainsaar
Social and behavioural sciences, Sociology, Social policy, Demography
Health, Social and behavioural sciences
perception/action psychology; decision-making; sports technology; immersive technologies; rehabilitation; movement disorders; TBI
Decision-making in sport
Serious gaming
Technology for Movement re-training and rehabilitation
Parkinson's disease
Sensory Cueing for Stroke rehabilitation
Sports Related concussion
2018 IGNITE Pre-Accelerator Startup prize winner (top 3 in N.Ireland)
2014 Gold Athena SWAN award for advancement of gender equality in higher education and research (only 4 awarded across all disciplines – 1st Psychology department in the UK to win award)
2014 Superior Quality Award Guide Dogs UK for development of guided running programme
2012 Runner-up N.Ireland Health Innovation Awards (Parkinson’s cueing research)
2011 Finalist 25k Innovation Awards (Balance tests and games for older adults)
2010 Visiting Professor, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Cachan, Rennes, France
English, French
2021-2022 Enterprise Fellow – Royal Academy of Engineering
Bienkiewicz, M. & Craig, C.M. (2016). Editorial: Sound, Music and Movement in Parkinson’s disease. Frontiers in Neuroscience, http://dx. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2016.00216
Bienkiewicz, M. & Craig, C.M. (2015). Parkinson’s is time on their side? Evidence for difficulty with sensorimotor synchronization. Frontiers in Neuroscience, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2015.00249.
Craig CM. (2014) Understanding perception and action in sport: How can virtual reality technology help? Sports Technology, 6, 161-169.
Rodger, M.W.M., Young, W.R. and Craig, C.M. (2014). Synthesis of Walking Sounds for Alleviating Gait Disturbances in Parkinson’s Disease. IEEE Transaction on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 22, 3, 543-548
Whyatt, C., & Craig, C.M. (2013). Interceptive skills in children aged 9-11 years, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. 7, 613-623. doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2013.01.003
Whyatt, C., & Craig, C.M. (2013) Sensory-motor problems in Autism. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 7, 51, doi: 10.3389/fnint.2013.00051.
Brault, S, Bideau, B, Kulpa, R & Craig, C (2012) Detecting deception in movement: The case of the side step in rugby. PloS ONE. Doi: 10.1371/jounral.pone.0037494
Young, W, Ferguson, S, Brault, S & Craig CM. (2011) Assessing and training standing balance in older adults: a novel approach using the 'Nintendo Wii' Balance Board. Gait and Posture, 33, 303-308.
Dessing, JC & Craig, CM. (2010) Bending it like Beckham: How to visually fool the goalkeeper. PloS One. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013161.
Bideau B, Kulpa R, Vignais, N, Brault, S, Multon, F & Craig CM, (2010) Virtual reality, a serious game for understanding performance and training players in sport. IEEE Computer Graphic Applications, 30, 14-21.
Coull JT, Vidal F, Goulon C, Nazarian B & Craig C (2008). Using Time-To-Contact information to assess potential collision modulates both visual and temporal prediction networks. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 2:10. doi:10.3389/neuro.09.010.2008
Craig, CM, Delay, D, Grealy, MA, & Lee, DN (2000) Precision golf putting: Guiding the swing. Nature 405, 295-296.
Craig, CM, Grealy, MA, & Lee, DN (2000). Detecting motor abnormalities in preterm infants. Experimental Brain Research, 131, 359-365.
N.Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (NICHS) – Using body tracking technology to develop novel movement based training for Stroke patients, 2017-2018
EPSRC Impact Accelerator Award – Development of a decision support system for sport, 2017
Irish Football Association (IFA) – Development of two interactives for the Education and Heritage Centre at Windsor Park, 2016-17
BAE Systems, Ltd. (DSTL) PAUSE – Personalising Autonomous Systems 2014
Wii-Park – Parkinson's UK Innovation Grant, 2011 – 2012
Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) – Balance Training in Older Adults, 2011
Microsoft Research Scholarship – Adapted Games for the Elderly, 2011 – 2014
European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant – TEMPUS_G (Temporal Enhancement of Movement Performance Using Sensory Guides), 2008 – 2013
2017 – 2021 Elected Board member of the International Society of Ecological Psychology (ISEP)
2017 Panel member EPSRC ‘Human-like Computing’ ICT call
2015 – 2016 Guest Editor, Frontiers in Neurology: Research Topic: Sound, Music and Movement in Parkinson’s disease.
2014 – 2016 Pre-proposal Grant Evaluation Panel Member, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
2013 -2018 Editor and Member of the Advisory board PeerJ (Psychiatry and Psychology)
2013 – 2018 Scientific Review Committee member, N.Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke
Since 2011 Associate Editor, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology (Taylor and Francis; Impact Factor 5.29)
Since 2010 Active Grant reviewer for European Research Council (ERC); National Science Foundation (NSF): ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche); Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF); Archimedes Programme, Greece; Government of Hong Kong (Food and Health Bureau); ESRC and EPSRC (UK research councils); Leverhulme; Wolfson Foundation, Dunhill Medical Trust and Action Medical Research
2002 onwards Active Reviewer for: JEP: HPP, Experimental Brain Research, Journal of Motor Behaviour, Human Movement Science, Ecological Psychology, PLoS One, Sports Medicine, Journal of Sports Sciences, European Journal of Sports Sciences, Presence, Naturwissenschaften, PNAS, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Behavioural and Brain Functions, Acta Paediatrica, Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Neuroscience
Mind Games – Sky Sports – looking at how VR technology can be used to create pressure situations in sport (August, 2018)
Virtual Reality gives ECB tantalising portrait of future Ashes series – The Guardian newspaper (December 2017)
Future of VR in Sport – Nua GAA RTE documentary on Gaelic sports featuring Movement Innovation Lab and how virtual reality can change the face of sports (July 2017), articles also in Pioneers and Red Bulletin (August 2017)
Behind the Science – NvTv 25 minute documentary on perception/action research carried out in the Movement Innovation Lab (February 2015).
Place kicking in rugby –explaining temporal control of movement in place-kicking (October 2016) half time feature for BBC Sport – showing how motion capture technology can be used to analyse kicking technique (September 2013)
Sensory Guides in Parkinson’s: Feature on Euronews Futuris programme during World Parkinson’s awareness week. (April 2012). Broadcast across Europe in 11 different languages.
Virtual reality simulator for cricket: article in the Guardian newspaper, ESPN CricInfo (August 2017), feature on BBC showing how Ireland batsmen tested our virtual reality simulator (September 2013)
Decision Making (VR) in Rugby: EirSport, Peak Performance rugby documentary (October 2016); RTE documentary about Tommy Bowe, BBC Newsline, local newspapers and other internet sites (e.g. Frontier Economy Innovators), a feature on BBC radio Ulster science programme 'What's Next'. Covered by the Otago Times and radio during Rugby World Cup (September 2011)
Balance Training for Older Adults: Coverage in the press (Irish News and Irish Times), two BBC Radio Ulster documentaries (‘How to live to be 100' and ‘What’s Next’), BBC Newsline. (July 2011)
PGCET – Post-graduate Certificat of Higher Education Teaching – Queen's University Belfast, N.Ireland, 2006
Entrepreneur – founded own start-up company aiming to translate 25 years research into products that can help people move better
Quality Assurance – have carried out a number of external quality assurance reviews in Croatia, Estonia and the UK
Demonstrated significant leadership abilities in a number of senior roles (CEO, Dean of Postgraduates, Head of School, Director of Research)
Excellent communication skills
Have 14-year-old daughter and a 4 year old labrador/collie cross dog
Enjoy participating in all types of sport
Love travelling and experiencing new cultures
You can only see the contact information of the academics in the database if you are a registered user of AcademiaNet.
Please register here
Social and behavioural sciences, Sociology, Social policy, Demography
Health, Public Health
Health, Academic Medicine
Social and behavioural sciences, Languages, Hispanic Literature
Ulster's rugby stars have been taking part in an exciting new research project in the School of Psychology, at Queen's University Belfast. This work is trying to understand how experts deal with clever side-step footwork.
Psychologist Cathy Craig studies how the brain processes sensory information and uses it to inform movement, with the goal of helping elderly individuals, patients with neurological disorders, and athletes improve their motor control. Craig is professor in perception and action psychology at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.