Geological Survey Ireland announces €1.45m funding for new research projects
Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) has announced over €1.45m for research projects awarded in 2020. The projects are funded under the GSI’s Research Programme which supports excellent research in geoscience and related areas of environmental science and engineering. Since 2015 the Programme has committed over €11m in funding to over 150 projects in academia and SMEs along with data, expertise and support from GSI scientific and technical staff.
The 2020 awards include six multiannual projects in areas including groundwater modelling, sourcing of critical metals, deep geothermal energy and geotechnical engineering studies of slope failure. Two of these projects are co-funded with
Science Foundation Ireland (Frontiers for the Future Programme) and two are supported through the
EU Geothermica Network for geothermal energy research.
GSI also awarded 17 short projects of less than 14 months with topics including geotechnical engineering assessments for offshore wind farms, new geophysics techniques for sub-surface imaging, palaeoclimate and environmental studies, local and satellite monitoring of coastal change and characterisation of Irish mineral deposits (see list below).
Mr Koen Verbruggen, Director of Geological Survey Ireland, welcomed the announcement and commented “we are very happy to support these excellent research projects in Ireland. Improving our understanding and monitoring of Earth systems is critical if we are to manage our natural resources properly - including our clean energy, water and minerals resources. The outputs from these projects will include new methodologies, data and interpretations that will help us inform policy and regulation as well as support our SMEs and Irish businesses in these sectors”.
Dr Aoife Braiden, GSI Research Manager added; "One of the aims of the GSI research strategy is to build capacity by supporting high quality research across Ireland. In addition to the GSI funding commitment announced today, we are fortunate to be able to partner with other Irish and International funding agencies to support our researchers. This is particularly important given the need for multidisciplinary teams and strong collaborative networks to address some of our most pressing societal issues such as natural resource management, climate change and our impact on the environment.
For more information and a list of the 2020 projects see our
Research page