He also emphasised the importance of Ireland's east-coast population corridor, and expressed hopes of building links between DCU and Dundalk IT, and Co. Louth in general, and in 2012, the two institutions concluded a cooperation agreement. Starting with his inauguration address, MacCraith has spoken publicly about the needs of industry and business from the university sector and the funding needs of third level. He has also spoken on the question of STEM participation by female students. MacCraith has published over 150 papers, and examples of peer-reviewed work include:  MacCraith chaired the "Strategic Review of Medical Training and Career Structures", which led to the "MacCraith Report" (June 2014), and later the Review of "STEM Education in the Irish School System" (reported November 2016). He is or has been a member of the board of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI), Ibec (formerly the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation), Chamber Choir Ireland, SciFest, the last of which he has chaired. He is also Chairperson of the three-member Board of Trustees of the Genio Trust, overseeing disbursal of funds for work in certain areas of social innovation, including dementia and home care. MacCraith is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of SPIE, the international scientific organisation for optics and photonics. He is also one of the limited numbers of Fellows of the Irish Academy of Engineering, the body set up by the Institution of Engineers of Ireland. He has also won the Mallin Invent Award for innovation. MacCraith was elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy, often considered the highest academic honour in Ireland, in 2007, in the Science division. In 2014, MacCraith was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. MacCraith is married to Catherine MacCraith, and they have a daughter, Aoife, and a son, Eoin.