NUI Galway has been granted €3 million for coastal and marine environmental research, as the largest recipient of a €9 million State programme for geoscience.
Nine groups from universities and research organisations on both sides of the Border have been awarded the funding by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Éamon Ryan.
The geoscience sector contributes more than €2 billion annually to the economy, according to Mr Ryan. The grant-aided projects range from exploration of the potential for generating geothermal energy from deep in the Earth's crust to the impact of climate change on groundwater supplies.
The awards are named in honour of geologist Richard Griffith (1784-1878) and aim to "encourage and develop world-class geoscience research and educational activities" in Ireland. Energy, environment, marine and infrastructure are the main sectors targeted in the programme.
NUI Galway's earth and ocean sciences department and its environmental change institute will share the funding for its bio-geoscience programme. Project manager Dr Colin Brown said that the grants would be used in a number of research programmes, including one which would establish the chemistry and pathways connecting water flows, particularly those underground, between limestone areas in Galway and Clare with coastal waters.
"Another project will use data collected by the Geological Survey of Ireland and others to understand the composition and transport of seabed sediments," Dr Brown said.
"This is important for offshore engineering, dredging, locating routes for telecom cables or oil and gas pipelines and construction of wind farms. Surprisingly, it's even important for estimating marine biodiversity and establishing protected areas for fisheries management."
Other award recipients include Queen's University Belfast groundwater research group (€1.8 million); University College Dublin marine and petroleum geology research group (€1.5 million); University College Cork coastal and marine research centre (€852,000); UCD geophysics research group (€640,000); University of Ulster Coleraine (€521,000); Dublin Institute for Advance Studies Irish geoscience graduate programme (€407,000); Trinity College geoschool group (€120,000) and Holocene Ltd for a television series (€100,000).
