Research

• Research themes
  • Earth Systems: Climate Change, Water and Geohazards
  • Sustainable Bioresources
  • Energy Supply: Renewable and Sustainable Energy
  • Emissions: Reduction and Control
  • Transport and Infrastructure
  • Economics and Policy Analysis
• Earth Resources Characterisation
• Climate Adaptation, Mitigation & Geohazards
• Smart Cities & Infrastructure
• Technology Platforms
• Publications

Sustainable Bioresources

Agriculture & Forestry is a key source of Irish food, fibre, fuel and biomass.  This sector faces major challenges including climate change, energy and labour costs, environmental concerns, consumer demands, and healthy food demands. This area of research is focused on ensuring sustainable and competitive production of AgriFood and Forestry bioresources.

The main research areas include:

• Biodiversity and environmental protection: evolutionary robustness of ecosystems and organisms, their adaptability to climate change
  
• Identifying genetic, nutritional, physiological, management and process parameters critical for sustainable and competitive Agriculture and Forestry bioresource productivity
  
• Developing modelling systems and novel technologies (nanotechnologies, process technologies and sensors) to improve the productivity of these sectors
  
• Determining how ecosystem components influence the productivity of agriculture and forestry and identify parameters critical for sustainable bioresource productivity
  
• Predicting how climate will influence functional groups in ecosystems that are important for sustained bioresource productivity
  
• Predicting the major future disease challenges for food, fuel and fibre production
  
• Identifying and selecting animal and crop characteristics and low input management and nutritional regimes to sustain and improve the productivity of Irish agriculture and forestry
  
• Identifying novel bioactive metabolites and platform biochemicals that can be generated from the Agriculture and Forestry industries
  
• Developing production forecasting models to predict tree and forest productivity
  
• Developing novel technologies, including nanotechnologies and process technologies, to improve the productivity of the Agriculture and Forestry sectors
  
• Development of real-time sensors for biomass assessment
  
• Producing bioreactor plant cell cultures that produce high yields of high value compounds and underpin the development of Ireland’s plant pharming industry
  
• Uncovering the mammalian Tree of Life
  
• Understand the mechanisms that drive speciation and biodiversity
  
• Predicting how climate will influence functional groups in ecosystems that are important indicators of environmental health
  
• Mineral resources in the deep sub-surface of Ireland
  
• Hydrocarbon basins, traps and reservoirs

Related Schools in UCD

• UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science
• UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science
• UCD School of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
• UCD School of Geological Sciences