Cathal O’Donoghue has been from 2016, the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at NUI Galway and Professor of Public and Social Policy. Prior to this he was since 2005, Head of Teagasc’s (Irelands Agriculture and Food Development Authority) Rural Economy and Development Programme, one of the 4 research programmes of Teagasc. He was a member of the board of Teagasc’s research directorate. He was a member of the Fund Council of CGIAR, a $1 billion a year International Agri-Food Research organisation from 2014-2016.

From 2012-2014, he was CEO of the Irish Government's Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas 2012-2014, Chairman of the Irish Sport Horse Strategy Committee 2013-2015, was President of the International Microsimulation Association 2011-2015 and is on the Executive of the UK Agricultural Economics Society.

He is a UCC graduate, a Statistician and Economist by training, with post graduate degrees from Oxford, UCD, the LSE, and Warwick, having worked previously at the ESRI, UK Government Economics Service, the University of Cambridge and NUI Galway. His personal research programme involves the development and use of policy simulation models, for which he holds a Chair(extra ordinary (adjunct)) at the University of Maastricht, as well as an adjunct position in UCD. He has published over 150 research papers, 5 books and supervised over 25 PhD students to completion. He has been an advisor to many international organisations and was a long term advisor to the UK Government's Department of Work and Pensions on policy modelling earlier in his career.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in December 2002.