Institute Members, Associate Members and Affiliate Members are eligible to apply for funding through two Institute schemes
UCD Climate Fellows Programme 2024
The Earth Institute is delighted to announce a call for expressions of interest for our new UCD Climate Fellows Programme.
The focus of this programme is to support the dissemination of UCD climate research more widely, to elevate Climate Fellows’ research profile, and to create new opportunities for academic and societal impact.
Fellows can be from any discipline who are pursuing research in any field that is broadly climate related. This could be concerned with the science of, or action related to, climate change. For example, the primary research focus may be on addressing a policy or economics question, have a humanities or behavioural emphasis, or be driven to improve our understanding of climate science or an aspect of the impact of climate action at any scale etc.
See the Climate Fellows Programme page for further details or the Climate Fellows website for details of the fellows.
Strategic Priority Support Mechanism
The Earth Institute Strategic Priority Support Mechanism aims to stimulate interdisciplinary activity across the Institute, the University and beyond, in the area of environmental research and its cognate disciplines. Funding up to €10,000 is awarded to 2-4 multi-disciplinary teams per annum, supporting non-research costs for targeted projects that are topical, achievable and impactful.
See the Strategic Priority Support Mechanism page for further details on the projects currently supported through the scheme and upcoming calls.
Small Responsive Funding Scheme
The Earth Institute Small Responsive Funding Scheme provides small awards to Earth Institute Members, Associate Members and Affiliate Members for activities that are beneficial to the applicant and wider Institute community, including contributions to the costs for travel of the applicant, a team member or a visitor. The scheme complements the existing Institute Strategic Priority Support Mechanism, providing regular, smaller awards throughout the year, with rapid decisions to accommodate opportunities as they arise.
The scheme provides support of up to €700 for activities where other funding is either not available or where the timing of funding calls do not fit with the timeline of the proposed activity. It is not envisaged that this scheme would support conference attendance or training activities as other funds are available.
See scheme guidelines and online application form for further information and to apply.
In 2019, Dr Nicole Beisiegel (now at Technical University Dublin) received funding from the Small Responsive Fund while working as an IRC-funded research fellow in the School of Mathematics and Statistics and the Earth Institute. The funding enabled Dr Beisiegel to travel to the UK to pursue a side project and collaborate with a researcher at the University of Reading on numerical simulations of a rotating annulus. Dr Beisiegel said:
"The collaboration resulted in software that can be used to simulate a multi-layer rotating annulus, and a still ongoing collaboration. For the future it is envisioned that this software will be used as a basis for a scientific publication or student projects. I have since progressed in my career and taken on an assistant lectureship in TU Dublin. No doubt, the network I built during my time in the Earth Institute has positively impacted my career development."
- Dr Nicole Beisiegel, Technical University Dublin
With the support of UCD Earth Institute Small Responsive Funding, Dr Conor Bracken (now at the Environmental Protection Agency) visited the Institute of Plant Ecology at Justus Liebig University (JLU), Germany to develop collaborative links, present research results, and provide training of a new analytical technique to researchers from JLU and the International Atomic Energy Association. This method was developed as part of his PhD research in the UCD Earth Institute’s Stable Isotope Analysis lab with Dr Paul Murphy. Dr Bracken said:
"Researchers at JLU benefitted from this hands-on training and support with their new equipment which has further strengthened collaborations between UCD and this research group. The funding was very beneficial to me as I really enjoyed providing this training and the interaction with other researchers has helped my PhD and career progress."
- Dr Conor Bracken
If you would like to discuss how the Institute can support applications to external funding sources, please contact our Research Manager Caitriona Devery.
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