Lecturer/Assistant Professor
UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science
Dr Dara Stanley is an Assistant Professor in Applied Entomology at UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science and a Fellow of UCD Earth Institute. She was the first to explore how pesticide use might affect the pollination of crops, going on to publish a seminal paper in Nature in 2015. Dara spearheaded the movement towards researching non-insecticide pesticides and has become a crucial voice highlighting the knowledge gaps in assessing the impacts of these chemicals on bees, publishing a systematic review on the topic in 2019. She instigated and is co-ordinator of PROTECTS (Protecting Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Sustainable Pesticide Use), funded by DAFM (€ 1.1 million) across five institutions.
On top of her prominent scientific career, Dara is an avid champion of women in science. She is a co-organiser of Soapbox Science Galway (2017-2019) and Soapbox Science Dublin (2019-2021), that has brought over 70 female and non-binary scientists to the streets to talk about their work with the public – and she provides science communication training for all speakers.
Dara further developed her research on threats to pollination services through the ongoing SFI-funded SUSPOLL project (Sustainable Pollination Services in a Changing World). Outputs from her work have been used by the European Food Safety Authority as part of the evidence base for assessing risk of neonicotinoids to bees in Europe. The work was also used to support the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan research objectives.
In addition to many academic engagements, Dara also organises walks-and-talks with the general public at multiple locations and events of ecological interest, including the Burren in Bloom Festival, BurrenBeo, Eureka Science Festival, for Birdwatch Ireland Carlow, Galway Museum, for multiple bee keeping associations and UCD World Bee Day.