Dr Ingeborg Birnie is  senior lecturer in the Institute of Education at the University of Strathclyde. Her research interests are focussed on (minority) languages in and for learning, with a special focus on Gaelic. She has experience of teaching across all stages of formal education in Scotland, including early years, primary, and secondary school levels. Her funded PhD focussed on the evaluating the impact of formal language management initiatives on the use of spoken Gaelic in interactions within public spaces. This research adapted the Basque Language Use Survey approach to the Scottish context and introduced the concept of the social linguistic soundscape as a measure to evaluate language vitality to the field of sociolinguistics. The same adopted methodology is now being used in other countries including Wales and Ireland to establish the extent to which minority languages contribute to the social linguistic soundscape and language planning and policy initiatives. Her research has led to the establishment of An Taigh Ceilidh - the Gaelic cultural social space in Stornoway which provides a physical breathing space for the language. The establishment of An Taigh Ceilidh has not only resulted in greater levels of Gaelic language use but also in increased social connections and improved wellbeing for those that use the space.

As an internationally recognised expert in minority languages she was appointed in September 2024 as the Council of Europe Advisory Committee Member for the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on behalf of the Netherlands: the only international committee dedicated to exclusively to minority rights and responsibile for the monitoring of the implementation of this treaty to protect the rights of persons belonging to national minorities. In this role, she advises the governments of the 38 Council of Europe Member States that are a signatory to this Framework in the implementation of minority rights within their particular context. 

She is the UNESCO Rapporteur for Ad Hoc Group 1 Provision of Education and Domains for Indigenous Education. In this capacity she reports on the work of the Ad Hoc group to the Global Task Force for Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022 - 2032) and leads on the creation of Evaluation Tool for the provision of Indigenous Languages in Education which has also formed the basis of the first Global Survey on Indigenous Language.

Dr Birnie is the co-chair of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education Languages Group (SCDE LG) which has representatives from all Initial teacher education institutions in Scotland. The SCDE LG is responsible for the creation of the National Framework for Languages and the associated languages profile and resource bank, as well as the creation of the Plurilingual Classrooms in Action Massive Open Online Course, hosted through FutureLearn. In this capacity she has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Languages Bill on the position of Gaelic in education. 

She previously led a range of international projects focussing on language learning and the promotion of plurilingual practices within the early years with for the European Centre for Modern Languages. She was the chair of Working Group 4 - Language diversity, vitality and endangerment - of the COST+ Action Language in the Human Machine Era (LITHME). In this capacity she led on the creation of a White paper to inform policy and practices in the area of minority language and ethical Artificial Intelligence.

Dr Birnie has held number of external examiner positions at a range of different universities across the United Kingdom and sits on the board of a number of  organisations, including Faclair na Gàidhlig, An Taigh Ceilidh and Comunn na Gàidhlig. She is a frequent contributor to the radio, television, and written media outlets. 

Dr Birnie's research interests are focussing on minority languages, both within and outside of the educational domain - in real and virtual spaces. She has received research grants from Bòrd na Gàidhlig to evaluate the use of spoken Gaelic in public settings within different communities as a measure of the vitality of the language.  The findings of this study have resulted in the establishment of a charity (An Taigh Ceilidh) which promotes Gaelic social network through the creation of a physical 'breathing space' for the language. Her research has also evaluated the use of Gaelic in social media and how these can contribute to creating networks of communal practice.

More recently her work has also focussed on new technologies, and in particular the use of generative Artificial Intelligence in and for minority languages and aligning these developments with human rights, democratic principles, and ethical data use. 

Dr Birnie leads and teaches on a range of different modules across the Institute of Education, many focussed on the teaching and learning of languages or on the Early Years and Childhood practice. She is the course leader for the BA (Hons) Primary Education with Gaelic Medium Education, and was previously (2018 - 2020) course leader of the Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Issues and Impact, delivered face-to-face in Pakistan, and the MEd (blended pathway).

She supervises a large number of doctoral students, typically with a focus on language learning and teaching.