€20 million funding for new marine research projects - NSCR/Marine Institute collaboration
-12 February 2010

The National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) at Dublin City University (DCU), along with the Marine Institute is holding the first annual Beaufort workshop today in DCU. This workshop will provide an overview of research projects carried out under the Beaufort Marine Research Awards which were launched in 2007 as part of ‘Sea Change’ – A Marine Knowledge, Research & Innovation Strategy for Ireland 2007-2013.

DCU’s commitment to advanced marine technology is timely as the Irish government has clearly stated that it intends to develop a cluster of marine, environmental and technology projects in light of recent climatic events. Under the leadership of Prof. Dermot Diamond the NCSR, was awarded €2.48 million, from NDP, to focus on the development of bio-sensing platforms for targets like microbes, parasites, pathogens and toxins as at present, despite significant capabilities in related areas, there is no specialist national leader or team.

Prof. Dermot Diamond said, "These awards are capacity building through the funding of a cluster of research projects. The next generation of technologies of the marine environment will provide information and knowledge to realise the economic potential."

The lack of low-cost, self sustaining platforms for monitoring water means that measurements are carried out primarily through grab sampling at a limited number of places and time, followed by analysis at a centralised facility. The resulting gaps in our knowledge of water quality means that when a major event occurs there is dispute about where the pollution originates and who is responsible.

“Our knowledge of what is happening in the oceans is directly related to our ability to collect accurate data,” said Dr. Peter Heffernan, CEO of the Marine Institute. “Work undertaken by the NCSR will not only allow the Marine Institute to improve its existing SmartBay ocean sensing system in Galway Bay but also to take an important step closer to the realisation of a SmartCoast network, delivering environmental information in real-time from locations all around the coast.”

The NCSR’s aim is to rollout platforms capable of remote sampling and analysis over extended periods of time and to ultimately produce the building blocks of an ‘environmental nervous system’ comprised of many distributed sensing devices that share their data in real time on the web, enabling the source of pollution events to be quickly located and remedial action initiated rapidly to minimise the danger to people and contamination of distribution systems.

The Beaufort Marine Research Awards amount to €20million and will fund new marine research projects over seven years throughout Ireland.

*Further Notes:*

DCU’s Beaufort team is multidisciplinary in nature with principal investigators from the School of Chemistry, Physics, Biotechnology, Engineering and Computing. The project overall is facilitated by the NCSR and supported by the NCSR admin team.

The Marine Institute
The Marine Institute was created under the Marine Institute Act in 1991 to “undertake, to co-ordinate, to promote and to assist” in the development of marine research and development in Ireland. Since its early days in Harcourt Street Dublin, it has grown into an internationally respected science body with, two purpose-built vessels – RV Celtic Explorer and RV Celtic Voyager, and a research facility near Newport, Co. Mayo. Its headquarters and main laboratory facilities are at Oranmore on the shores of Galway Bay.

*Sea Change*
Sea Change – A Marine Knowledge and Information Strategy 2007 – 2013 seeks to strengthen the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of the marine sector by developing greater alignment between the needs of industry and the research capacity of the public sector and the third level.

It aims to build multidisciplinary research capacity and capability that can be applied to marine-related activities, leading to the acquisition of new technical skills, improved flow of expert personnel between the research community and industry and the creation of new commercial opportunities. Sea Change also delivers a comprehensive planned policy support research measure to apply the knowledge gained from research and monitoring to inform public policy, governance and regulation.