About

Earth Talks is a series of interviews produced by University College Dublin’s Earth Institute. They feature Institute researchers (and the occasional guest) and explore the big issues in environmental and sustainability research at local, national and global levels.  Interdisciplinarity and collaboration are central to the Earth Institute and these interviews reflect the breath and depth of how our researchers engage with critical issues.

The UCD Earth Institute is UCD’s research institute for environmental and sustainability research. The Institute  has over 100 members and 200 associate members, spread across 20 of the University’s Schools, and has active links with a wide range of collaborators and stakeholders. It is home to state-of-the-art research laboratories in the UCD O’Brien Centre for Science.  It engages with researchers at all career stages and across disciplines including Biology, Business, English, Economics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Law, Computer Science, Geography, Agriculture, Archaeology, Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Planning, Policy, Earth Sciences and many others.

The Institute fosters interdisciplinary research within and beyond UCD through an active programme of events and activities designed to bring researchers together from these different disciplines, to start new conversations, spark new ideas and support new initiatives relating to research and education, policy and governance, innovation and enterprise and engagement and society.

The expertise of its members revolves around seven themes, focusing on water, climate, ecosystems and evolution, crops for the future, energy and resources, built and constructed environment and sustainable communities.  Current short-term strategic initiatives include the Centre for Irish Towns, DIVERSICROP, HempHub, Climate Resilient Agri-Environmental Systems (CRAES) network and the ECOBROKER project which seeks to connect environmental researchers and practitioners.  The Earth Institute has close links with many of UCD’s other institutes and research centres and is co-located with the SFI BEACON Bioeconomy Research Centre.

If you would like to contribute an Earth Talk and share your research, please contact Caitriona Devery at caitriona.devery@ucd.ie.