Energy Sustainability@DCU

This is a University-Designated Research Initiative (UDRI) under the Sustainable DCU programme. In an interdisciplinary project, School of
Communications staff collaborate with School of Electronic Engineering,
DCU Business School, and with the help of local community partnerships
and NGOs, use anticipatory methods of technology foresight and co-production to design innovative energy solutions at DCU, for society. Energy Sustainability@DCU is heavily linked with the DCU in
the Community programme (Pat Brereton, Pádraig Murphy)

Projects in which Celsius members are involved at start of 2010 include:

PERARES – Public engagement with research and research engagement with society

This EU-funded project (2010-14) is based mainly on a network of science shops in Europe and will involve cross-country initiatives on public engagement with a range of scientific topics, aiming to produce toolkits and protocols for successful implementation of such initiatives and for their evaluation. The project has 30 partners in 15 countries. (Brian Trench, Pádraig Murphy)

DCU Research Fellowship on Science Futures

This fellowship (2010-11) funds investigation of various approaches to ‘anticipatory science governance’. The project will look at how society imagines future ecological issues and sustainable science, from literary representations to policy 'foresighting' exercises. It will develop and pilot a toolkit of procedures for inclusive, participatory assessment of emerging sciences. (Pádraig Murphy, Brian Trench)

Audio-Visual Science audiences (AVSA)

Funded for two years (2008-10) under the EU’s Science in Society programme, this project has five partners in Germany, Finland, Greece, Bulgaria and Ireland, who are analysing by various means the audience reception of science programmes on radio and television. The analysis covers broadcast science in 12 countries and, in early 2010, is concluding focus-group research with various audiences. The project will end in April 2010. (Yvonne Cunningham, Brian Trench)

Environmental, Health and Social Issues in Nanotechnology

Funded for two years (2007-2009) under the Environmental Protection Agency’s STRIVE programme, this post-doctoral fellowship examined public discourses about nanotechnology and its risks and exploring techniques for public engagement with nanotechnology. The final report is due for completion in April 2010. (Pádraig Murphy, Brian Trench)

Celebrity scientists

This PhD project, which is due to conclude in 2010, represents an innovative study of some well-known public scientists and science popularisers as ‘celebrities’, thus calling on the rapidly expanding field of celebrity studies and illustrating an under-studied aspect of the social recontextualisation of science. (Declan Fahy, Helena Sheehan)

Evaluating Informal Science Education

This PhD project is funded for three years (2008-10) by the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute (BDI) and is developing and applying evaluation models to selected education and outreach activities of the BDI, particularly those targeting primary school pupils. (Diana Kaiser, Emma O’Brien, Richard O’Kennedy)

Communication training of scientists

Through participation in the EU-funded project, ESConet, and independently, Celsius members design and deliver training modules for research scientists in various aspects of public

communication, including dialogue, risk communication, and controversy, as well as the more usual media skills of interviews and press releases. (Declan Fahy, Pádraig Murphy, Brian Trench)

Ethical issues in new diagnostics

This project is funded by Science Foundation Ireland through the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute. Point-of-care diagnostic devices raise a number of ethical issues. A PhD project focuses on the impact of such devices on healthcare and in particular on the balance between professional responsibility and individualistic paradigms. (Dónal O’Mathúna)

Film and ethical issues with nanotechnology

This project examines how ethical issues in nanotechnology are portrayed in film and science fiction. The potential impact of these narratives on the ethical issues is being explored, and how the films work or do not work as ‘teacherly texts’. (Dónal O’Mathúna, Pat Brereton)