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UCD Earth Institute

UCD's institute for environmental, climate and sustainability research

About the UCD Earth Institute

Our multidisciplinary community of researchers work on topics relating to climate, water, biodiversity, plants for the future, sustainable communities, people, work and society, and the built environment.

We foster interdisciplinary research through an active programme of projects, initiatives and events designed to bring researchers and stakeholders together, to start new conversations, spark new ideas and support new collaborations.

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Research

Learn about the Marine & Energy Social Sciences & Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Group (MESSAGE)

News

29Jan

Earth Institute members among finalists at 2025 Research Impact Awards; reach Images of Research Competition shortlist

UCD announced the winners of the 2025 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition at a Research Impact Awards event yesterday, hosted by Professor Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact. The annual competition celebrates research from all disciplines that has made a demonstrable and positive difference beyond academia – influencing policy, practice, communities, culture, health and society.

22Jan

Enterprise Ireland spotlights DIVERSICROP project

The DIVERSICROP project, led by Dr Sónia Negrão, associate professor at UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, has been showcased by Enterprise Ireland in its latest Horizon Europe newsletter. The project, which is funded by the EU, Earth Institute and Enterprise Ireland, is featured as part of the newsletter’s Success Stories series.

19Dec

New beer mats to give public a taste of Ireland’s peatland heritage

UCD Climate Fellow Dr Shane Mc Guinness is one of the researchers behind a specially commissioned series of beer mats about Ireland’s peatlands being distributed to pubs across Dublin and Cork ahead of the festive season. The development of the mats, which feature detailed artwork and facts focusing on the biodiversity and cultural history preserved in the country’s bogs, was led by researchers at UCD and UCC in collaboration with artist Eleanor Brayden.

09Dec

Earth Institute proud to support first Coastal Ecology Workshop held in Ireland

The Earth Institute was delighted to sponsor the recent Coastal Ecology Workshop (CEW) which was held in Dublin for the very first time. This year’s event, which was held at the Shoreline Hotel in Donabate late last month, was organised by Ragna Hoogenboom and Eliza Fairchild from UCD’s Blue Carbon Group and Trinity’s Coastal Research Group members Dr Erica Terese Krueger, Kevin O’Leary and Jenny Clarke.

$Muddying the waters - how \'sludge\' can complicate and delay urgent climate action plans$ 26Nov

Muddying the waters - how 'sludge' can complicate and delay urgent climate action plans

The second of the Earth Institute’s Adapt for the Future lunchtime sessions, entitled Bureaucratic Burdens in a Warming World and which took place yesterday, focused on how paperwork and frustrating administrative hurdles can delay climate action. Defined as ‘sludge’, these excessive behavioural frictions can muddy the waters by making it harder for people to do what they intend to do – or in the case of climate action, stall vital projects such as afforestation or local energy initiatives.

24Nov

Inaugural UCD SATELLITE Artist in Residence at Mayo Dark Sky Park, Wild Nephin National Park

UCD College of Science and Parity Studios in partnership with Mayo Dark Sky Park at Wild Nephin National Park have selected artist Louise Beer as the inaugural SATELLITE Artist in Residence, beginning a year-long collaboration between art, science, and the night sky. The residency is also supported by National Parks and Wildlife Service, UCD Centre for Space Research and UCD Earth Institute.

10Nov

Science Week events - Earth Institute researchers working with artists to explore river catchments

Earth Institute members feature in water-related Science Week events organised by Eco Showboat artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly as part of their project Catchments 2025.

06Nov

UCD Climate Fellows announced as part of event on how to talk about climate change so that people actually listen

People don’t talk about climate change enough, it can seem unreal and distant, and can be an uncomfortable and divisive topic for people to discuss - so how do we talk about climate change so that people actually listen? asked George Marshall yesterday at an event in UCD where seven new UCD Climate Fellows were announced.

31Oct

The 2026 Earth Institute Journalist in Residence call is now open

We are now taking applications to our journalist-in-residence call. The residency programme is an innovative initiative to provide early career and established journalists with the opportunity to work directly with climate, environment and sustainability researchers in UCD, aiming to enable high-quality journalism around these topics. Deadline 8 December

An immersive approach to researching offshore cultural ecosystem services

Marine areas, unlike coastal or inland locations, are often seen as uninhabited resource sites and rarely looked at as spaces of lived experience or cultural meaning, write Dr Ashley Cahillane, Professor Johanna Forster, Dr Dorota Kolbuk and Professor John Brannigan. However, effective marine governance means understanding the full array of ecosystem benefits – including cultural ecosystem services (CES) such as a sense of place, belonging, identity and care. The CES of offshore environments are also important for considering various policy contexts including marine spatial planning, marine protected areas and marine cultural heritage.

25Feb

Biodiversity theme meeting 2026

Annual meeting for the Institute's Biodiversity theme, followed by lunch. If you're engaging in or interested in research related to biodiversity, please come along. Earth Institute theme meetings are an annual opportunity to meet researchers from across the university working on a broad range of topics related to the seven Institute themes.

10Feb

The growing need for foresight in Irish environmental research and policy: climate, energy and sustainability in times of flux

Foresight, or futures studies, is an umbrella term for a range of techniques used in empirical inquiry and strategic policymaking to address uncertainty and to develop better policy. These techniques are widely used in environmental research and policy, including climate, energy and sustainability, but have not yet been widely implemented in Ireland. This event will offer an introduction to foresight approaches and will be of interest to researchers and those involved in policy development.

05Feb

Coffee morning talk to reflect on nature of being in times of uncertainty

This talk by Tiber Falzett, Head of Folklore and Ethnology, at UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, reflects on ontologies of (dis/em)placement in a more-than-human North Atlantic world through Scottish Gaelic and Irish seanchas, interspecies ethnography, and birding as practice.

04Feb

Built Environment theme meeting 2026

Annual meeting for the Institute's Built Environment theme, followed by lunch. If you're engaging in or interested in research related to the built environment, please come along. Earth Institute theme meetings are an annual opportunity to meet researchers from across the university working on a broad range of topics related to the seven Institute themes.

29Jan

Grounds for a great coffee morning presentation - soils, pollinators and agroecology

How pollinating insects operate above ground is well known, but little is known about how insect pollinators depend on the soil for at least part of their lifecycle. Agroecology has the potential to improve agricultural areas for biodiversity, thus increasing the provision of ecosystem services to agriculture.

22Jan

The first coffee morning talk of 2026 will explore how urban climate adaptation unfolds in practice

To kick off this year's programme of coffee morning talks, we are delighted to be joined by Iresh Jayawardena, senior lecturer in urban planning in Waipapa Taumata Rau/The University of Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand who is currently visiting UCD. Climate change is no longer a distant risk for cities – it is a lived reality reshaping homes, neighbourhoods, and governance systems.

$Immerse yourself in underwater ecosystems and narratives at upcoming MESSAGE event\n$ 03Dec

Immerse yourself in underwater ecosystems and narratives at upcoming MESSAGE event

MESSAGE, the Marine & Energy Social Sciences & Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Group based at UCD, invites you to a free event entitled "Underwater Worlds: Art, Science and the Submerged" featuring London-based artist Sonia Levy. Join Sonia for a lecture and a viewing of her mesmerising aquatic video-art followed by a discussion by an interdisciplinary panel of artists and researchers who have all, in their own way, worked on visualising submerged ecosystems and narratives.

02Dec

Want to turn your research into headline news? Find out how at this special media event

How can researchers make their work stand out in today’s media landscape? Discover how at this special panel event on Tuesday 2 December when three of the Institute’s journalists in residence will share their insights on how academics can engage effectively with the media and the public.

$Explore offshore renewable energy data gaps and new opportunties at next month\'s MarSea workshop$ 02Dec

Explore offshore renewable energy data gaps and new opportunties at next month's MarSea workshop

Analysing data gaps in ORE impact assessments, the centralisation and optimisation of ORE-related data and discussing opportunities to build connections between academia, eNGOs and State bodies will be the focus of this workshop. Open to those with expertise in the environmental, socio-economic or technical impacts of ORE, the event will include a presentation on MSP data networks and harmonisation by Michael Arrigan from the Marine Institute.

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