Over the past 5 years, staff in this cluster have developed expertise in a range of environmental policy debates from global (e.g. climate change) to local (e.g. urban and rural quality of life) levels. Academic staff in this cluster have been highly successful in attracting research funding from national and international sources, including the EU framework programmes, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, IRCHSS and IRCET and research output in the form of a growing volume of internationally-refereed publications and conference presentations has burgeoned. Staff within this cluster have been recognized internationally; for example Prof. Frank Convery is the Honorary President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics and current Chairperson of Comhar, the Sustainable Development Council of Ireland, and the Cluster also hosts a Jean Monnet Professorship in Environmental Policy, awarded to Professor Peter Clinch for his contribution to European environmental debates.

The Major areas of focus for research and scholarship in this cluster are:

• Environmental governance: including agri-environmental management and regulation, market-based environmental policy instruments (such as the EU Emissions Trading Schemes), and local environmental politics and active citizenship.
• Environmental modelling: including an assessment of urban climates and environmental conditions, fluvial systems, environmental noise, transport and emissions modelling.
• Quality of life and the environment: this includes recent research into the environmental and spatial determinants of quality of life.
• Sustainable places: research under this theme includes major interdisciplinary research programmes examining the urban environment, housing in rural areas and residential preferences.
• Environmental management and planning: including landscape planning and assessment, the interface of ecology and society, the role of innovation and collaborative approaches to environmental management.

Representative Research Projects:

Funded:

www.economicinstruments.com

“Expanding the National Accounts in Ireland: Towards Measuring Sustainability” Funding Body: Environmental RTDI Programme – EPA, September 2005 - September 2008


“HAPPINESS (HAPpiness, Political Institutions, Natural Environment and Space) - A comparative analysis of the influence of environmental conditions, environmental regimes and political context on subjective well-being” European Science Foundation Eurocoresprogramme.


"The EU Emission Trading Scheme and the Greening of Technology" Funding Body: Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for the Environment (STRIVE) Programme. EPA. Oct 2007-2010
Sustainable Rural Development – Managing Housing in the Countryside (EPA Funded) 
Civil Society, Environmental Change and Contested Rurality, (Royal Irish Academy Funded) 

 




Staff:

Key: 

BES, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science 

GPEP, UCD School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy   

UII, UCD Urban Institute Irealnd

Cluster leader: Dr Scott, Mark GPEP (Head of Environmental Policy)

Brereton, Fin	UII
Bullock, Craig	GPEP
Clinch, Peter	GPEP
Collier, Marcus	GPEP
Convery, Frank	GPEP
Jones, Alun	GPEP
Dunne, Louise	GPEP
Mills, Gerald	GPEP
Murphy, Enda	GPEP
O'Connor, Deirdre	BES
Scott, Mark	GPEP
Turner, Jonathan	GPEP