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Geological Survey Ireland is a partner in a number of projects funded or co-funded by the European Commission.

GeoERA

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Establishing the European Geological Surveys Research Area to deliver a Geological Service for Europe.

GeoERA will contribute to the optimal use and management of the subsurface. GeoERA funds transnational research projects to support 1) a more integrated and efficient management and 2) more responsible and publicly accepted, exploitation and use of the subsurface.

The network comprises 48 national and regional Geological Survey Organisations from 33 European countries and

funds transnational research projects addressing the following four themes:

- Geoenergy

- Groundwater

- Minerals

- Information sharing

GeoERA network

Geothermica

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The GEOTHERMICA network (ERA NET Cofund) comprises 16 research and innovation funding programmes from 13 countries and regions. Together with financial support from the European Commission GEOTHERMICA supports projects that demonstrate and validate novel concepts of geothermal energy deployment within the energy system, and helps identify paths to commercial large-scale implementation.

As Geological Survey Ireland is a full member of the network, Irish based geothermal energy researchers (in industry and academia) can apply for funding from Geothermica. Projects must include a minimum of two partners from two of the countries/regions in the network.

Geothermica network

ERA Min 2

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ERA-MIN 2 (ERA-NET Cofund) on Raw Materials is public-public partnerships funded under Horizon 2020. The networks aims to implement a European-wide coordination of research and innovation programmes on raw materials to strengthen the industry, competitiveness and the shift to a circular economy.

It comprises 21 funding partners from countries and regions across Europe, South America and South Africa. Geological Survey Ireland, with additional support from the EPA Ireland, provides funding for Irish partners (academic and industry) taking part in collaborative projects. Projects must include a minimum of two partners from two countries/regions within the network.

ERA MIN 2 network

EPOS

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EPOS, the European Plate Observing System, is a long-term project to facilitate integrated use of data, data products, and facilities from distributed research infrastructures for solid Earth science in Europe.

EPOS deals with physical and chemical processes, which cover wide temporal and spatial scales, from microseconds to billions of years and from nanometres to thousands of kilometres. Geology, natural hazards, natural resources and, in general, environmental processes do not respect national boundaries, therefore seamless, trans-national integration of measurements and data is often vital for optimal research and related activities.

Geological Survey Ireland is the national representative in EPOS and, along with the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, is involved in a number of work packages within the project.

EPOS

ORAMA

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The ORAMA project focuses on optimising data collection for primary and secondary raw materials in EU Member States. ORAMA addresses specific challenges related to data availability, geographical coverage, accessibility, standardisation, harmonisation, interoperability, quality, and thematic coverage in EU Member States.

ORAMA will analyse data collection methods and make recommendations from past and ongoing projects to identify best practices, develop practical guidelines and provide training to meet specific needs. These actions will demonstrate how to improve datasets for mineral occurrences, minerals intelligence data, economic, technical, environmental and social data for primary and secondary raw materials.

ORAMA project

CHERISH

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CHERISH Project is funded under the Wales-Ireland Interreg programme. The projects aims to increase cross-border knowledge and understanding of the impacts (past, present and near-future) of climate change, storminess and extreme weather events on the cultural heritage of reefs, islands and headlands of the Irish Sea.
The work will target data and management knowledge gaps, employing innovative techniques to discover, assess, map and monitor heritage assets on land and beneath the sea.

CHERISH will also raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on heritage, train the citizen scientist and widely disseminate the results. It will develop best practice and guidance, making recommendations for future adaptation.

CHERISH project

ProSUM

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ProSUM – Prospecting Secondary raw materials from the Urban Mine and Mining waste. The ProSUM project will deliver the First Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform, a centralised database of all available data and information on arisings, stocks, flows and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), batteries and mining wastes.
The availability of primary and secondary raw materials data, easily accessible in one platform, will provide the foundation for improving Europe’s position on raw material supply, with the ability to accommodate more wastes and resources in future. ProSUM will provide data for improving the management of these wastes and enhancing the resource efficiency of collection, treatment and recycling.

Geological Survey Ireland provides data and expertise to the project primarily through the Stocks and Flows work Package mainly through our Minerals Programme.

ProSUM project

Minerals4EU

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This EU funded project is designed to meet the recommendations of the Raw Materials Initiative and will develop an EU Mineral intelligence network structure delivering a web portal, a European Minerals Yearbook and foresight studies.

The network provides data, information and knowledge on mineral resources around Europe, based on an accepted business model, making a fundamental contribution to the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP RM), seen by the Competitiveness Council as key for the successful implementation of the major EU2020 policies.

Geological Survey Ireland is a partner in the project and provides data and expertise on Irish minerals resources.

Minerals4EU project

EMODnet

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The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) consists of more than 160 organisations assembling marine data, products and metadata to make these fragmented resources more easily available to public and private users relying on quality-assured, standardised and harmonised marine data which are interoperable and free of restrictions on use. EMODnet is currently in its third development phase with the target to be fully deployed by 2020.

Geological Survey Ireland and the INFOMAR Programme contributes expertise and data to a number of EMODNET Data Portals including: Geology, Bathymetry and Coastal mapping.

EMODNET

NAGTEC

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Northeast Atlantic Geoscience (NAG) cooperation framework was established in 2008 and includes BGR (German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources), BGS (British Geological Survey), GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland), GSI (Geological Survey of Ireland), GSNI (Geological Survey of Northern Ireland), ÍSOR (Iceland GeoSurvey), JF (Jarðfeingi, Faroe Islands), NGU (Geological Survey of Norway), and TNO (The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research).
The aim was to share knowledge and resources on critical issues facing each of the surveys and develop economy of scale for projects that no individual survey could undertake.

Since 2008 three major initiatives have moved forward, including NAG-TEC; the North Atlantic Tectonostratigraphic Atlas The main focus was to investigate the tectonic evolution of the North Atlantic region with a particular emphasis on basin evolution along conjugate margins.

NAGTEC

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MINLAND

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Competing societal interests, such as expanding
cities, infrastructure development, agriculture and nature conservation, have had negative effect on the available area for exploration and mining of mineral resources. Consequently, the supply of mineral raw materials within the EU is at risk.
Therefore, the integration of mineral resources policies into land-use planning at different scales and levels is a key factor for achieving the goals of the EU Raw Materials Initiative.

The MINLAND project will facilitate minerals and land-use policy making and strengthen a transparent land use practice.
It will address the challenge by: collecting and structuring information from member states and EU activities
(stocktaking), performing in-depth analyses and case studies on relevant issues and aspects, and compiling comprehensive
and practically applicable guidance documents.

MinLand

PACIFIC

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Passive seismic techniques for environmentally friendly and cost efficient mineral exploration (PACIFIC), is a 3 year project funded under H2020, the European Commission research and innovation programme.

The main objective is to develop a new, low-cost and environmentally friendly tool for exploring for buried mineral deposits.

The PACIFIC approach will build on the "traditional" passive seismic method, which is capable of providing useful broad-brush background information about the geological and structural setting of mineralised regions, but lacks the resolution needed for reliable identification of ore bodies.

Two new seismic exploration techniques will be validated on test sites in Canada and Sweden. Research on social acceptance and public perception of risk for mining activities will accompany the deployment and testing of the techniques. YOu can watch a short video here.

PACIFIC

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