€6.9 million for new environmental and climate research awarded by the EPA

Date released: June 19, 2025

• EPA funding of €6.9 million has been awarded for 11 new research projects to address climate and environmental challenges. 
• The funded research will address key knowledge gaps and support the development of vital research capacity in Ireland.

19th June 2025: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced new research awards of €6.9 million for environmental and climate research in Ireland. This brings to €21.4 million the total research funding announced by the EPA to date in 2025. 

The funding will support 11 new and innovative projects, which will involve 98 staff and students across 27 organisations. It will also build research capacity and skills in areas relevant to tackling important environmental challenges. Successful projects will address policy-relevant topics such as: 

• Understanding the impacts of noise pollution on health and the environment;
• Exploring young people’s attitudes, knowledge and actions around climate change; 
• Mechanisms to support scaling-up of the circular economy;
• Understanding how exposure to future sea level rise could impact population dynamics and
• Studying remote Irish islands to enhance our understanding of the response and resilience of offshore environments to climate change.

Announcing the funding, Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said:

“The increased scale of research funding being announced by the EPA in 2025 reflects the critical role that research and innovation play in addressing climate change, environmental pollution and biodiversity decline. This new EPA funding will help develop innovative solutions to support Ireland’s response to these challenges. Congratulations to the successful researchers and I look forward to hearing more about these exciting projects in the years ahead.”

The list of funded awards made to date in 2025 is available on the EPA website with full project details in the EPA’s online Research Database.

The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. Further details are available on the EPA website.

Contact:  Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office, 053-9170770 (24 hours) or media@epa.ie. 

Notes to Editor

As part of its wide range of functions, the EPA manages a research programme that delivers essential scientific support for environmental policy development, implementation and broader decision making. The EPA has been funding research in Ireland since 1994 and is currently funding more than 200 research projects. 
Supporting environmental policies: 

The annual EPA Research Call is a key element of the EPA 2030 Research Strategy which provides scientific support for environmental policy development, implementation and broader decision making across four thematic areas:

• Addressing climate change evidence needs,
• Facilitating a green and circular economy,
• Delivering a healthy environment and
• Protecting and restoring our natural environment.

The EPA Research Programme is designed to support the implementation of environmental policies in Ireland, such as the Climate Action Plan; National Climate Adaption Framework; Circular Economy Action Plans and Strategies; National Biodiversity Action Plan; National Radon Strategy; National Land Use Review; National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals; as well as a range of policy areas of interest for the EPA.  

EPA Research provides support to all types of research-performing organisations within Ireland through a variety of funding mechanisms and partnerships. Further details about the EPA Research Programme are on the EPA website.

EPA Research Call 2024 – further information

The EPA Research Call 2024 addressed the following selected areas from the EPA’s Thematic Research Priorities 2024-2026:

• Global risks to Ireland achieving its climate and environmental goals
• Social science, citizen science and behavioural science for climate action
• Understanding vulnerabilities, risks and adaptation measures at the local level
• Developing climate neutral pathways for Ireland
• Towards zero pollution
• Chemicals that are safe and sustainable by design
• Further understanding the health impacts of a changing environment
• Enhancing the assessment of materials, products and value chains in the circular economy in Ireland
• Integration of the circular economy and bioeconomy into climate and biodiversity measures
• Supporting and scaling up the just transition to the circular economy
• Integrating nature into decision-making
• Implementing effective protect and restore solutions
• Supporting the transition to sustainable land use planning and management

A total of 130 eligible applications were received to the EPA Research Call 2024 with a total of 36 awards being issued in two tranches.  Based on information provided in the applications, in total almost 300 research staff will be supported through the 36 projects funded under the EPA Research Call 2024. This includes the lead and co-investigators, research team members, students and support staff. Of the 298 people declared as being involved in the funded projects, 127 will be directly funded through the research grants.  

A full list of the funded projects is provided below. For full details on the awards granted through the EPA Research Call 2024 and other research funding by the EPA in 2024, please refer to the EPA Research Database.

Funding opportunities 2025: The EPA Research Call 2025 launched on 3 April 2025 and closed for applications on 5 June 2025. It consisted of 29 targeted topics focused on specific policy areas and outcomes will be announced in 2026. Other EPA funding opportunities this year include EPA Fast-track to Policy Funding; Fulbright-EPA Scholarships and Fellowships; as well as opportunities supported through EPA’s participation in National and European Partnerships. Up to date information is available on our Research Funding webpage.

List of new research awards from the EPA Research Call 2024

Lead Applicant	Lead Organisation	Project Title	Grant Aid Committed
Addressing Climate Change Evidence Needs
Ashling Bourke	Dublin City University (DCU)	The Next Generation Calls to Action: Adolescents' Climate Change Attitudes, Knowledge and Actions	€654,209
Susan Hegarty	Dublin City University (DCU)	Catchment Communities- An Interdisciplinary Ecosystem for Citizen Science	€630,932
Caitriona Carlin	University of Galway	Collective Opportunities in Nature & Environment for Community Transformations	€657,464
Niamh Cahill	Maynooth University (MU)	Estimating and Projecting Population Exposure to Extreme Sea Levels in Ireland	€519,880
Delivering a Healthy Environment
John Kennedy	University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD)	Noise 2050	€579,886
Matthew Chersich	University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD)	Establishing long-term systems for monitoring the impacts of climate change on health in Ireland	€610,179
David O'Connor	Dublin City University (DCU)	Bioaerosol monitoring for Climate-Health Analysis and Modelling Processes	€653,489
Facilitating a Green and Circular Economy
Wolfgang Schmitt	University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD)	From Bio-waste to Porous Graphene Materials: Novel Absorbents for Advanced Atmospheric Carbon Capture	€659,861
Aoife Morrin	Dublin City University (DCU)	Enhancing the circulaR Economy of PAINT integrating added value through technology	€620,818
Bernadette Power	University College Cork (UCC)	Supporting and scaling up the just transition to the circular economy	€658,242
Protecting and Restoring Our Natural Environment
Catherine Dalton	Mary Immaculate College	Leveraging Island liGHThouses and Harnessing Technology to examine Heritage Opportunities in Unique Offshore Environments	€643,501