Research Institutes
The School is affiliated with a number of UCD Research Institutes which provide important networks for interdisciplinary collaboration across the university and with other institutions nationally and internationally. Research institutes also host key research infrastructure and support doctoral training through structured PhD programmes.
Urban Institute Ireland is a centre for the development of new technologies, policies and ideas designed to improve the quality of the working and living environment. The institute is established as an important centre internationally for research on Urban and Development issues. The initial concept for Urban Institute Ireland was to be a centre for research on sustainable urban development, bringing researchers on infrastructure together with researchers on policy, planning and design. This has evolved over the past three or four years and the institute now carries out research on a broader range of topics that encompass rural as well as urban development. Its vision is to be the national centre for the development of new technologies, policies and ideas designed to improve the quality of the working and living environment.
The UII unites the scientific, technical, professional, and public-policy disciplines of UCD, including engineering, planning, environmental policy, architecture, geography, economics, sociology, physics, rural development, transport policy, biology and climatology, to provide the synergy required to tackle the multidimensional challenges of achieving sustainable development in new and innovative ways.
UCD Earth Institute is unique in Ireland. It has the range and depth of expertise to understand the relationships between energy, the environment, climate change and hazards; to relate science to policy, and support the challenge to meet our climate change and energy obligations; to inform the public and policy process; and to commit to making Ireland an innovation hub for green technologies.