DCU Researchers secure over €1.35 million in Research Ireland funding across two calls
The Coalesce call seeks projects that address national and global societal challenges through collaboration between researchers and policymakers, civil society, and enterprise. A total of 16 successful proposals have secured €3.5 million.
The Frontiers for the Future call prioritises high-risk, high-reward research projects. Minister James Lawless TD has announced €34.5 million in funding for 39 projects under this call.
Dr Stephen Power’s project looks to expand on the unique electronic properties of 2D materials, which have established them at the forefront of efforts to develop energy-efficient digital technologies.
Dr Power’s work goes beyond using these materials to replace existing semiconductors, and instead considers brand new technological platforms that bring the unique quantum properties of these materials into play.
The key idea is to develop programmable lattices of strained bubbles or electric potentials to manipulate these properties, and then use advanced algorithms to find the best arrangement of features for a particular application.
Dr Úna Breathnach and Prof Tomás Ward are collaborating on a new Irish language web resource. The Irish language is a treasure trove of dialects, each reflecting the unique voices, stories, and landscapes of the communities who speak it. Yet many of these dialects are vanishing, and recordings of them are scattered across archives, private collections, and often hidden from public reach. Canúint.ie is an ambitious project that aims to preserve this diversity and make it accessible to everyone. By transforming 200 hours of archival recordings into an interactive online resource, canúint.ie will enable users to search for words and their pronunciations by region, and explore the incredible variety of Irish dialects.
Imagine being able to click on a word and instantly hear how it was once spoken by native speakers in Sligo, Tipperary and Louth, or by the finest speakers in the Gaeltacht areas where Irish is still alive today. Canúint.ie will bring these voices back to life, combining the latest artificial intelligence technologies with expert knowledge of the Irish language to create a powerful tool for learning, teaching, and research.
What does it mean to face the climate crisis together, to build solutions that honour the land and the people who live on it? Dr Fiona Murphy and Prof Regan’s project’s attempt to answer this question starts with two Irish communities—Dingle, nestled on the edge of the Atlantic, and Balbriggan, a dynamic town on the outskirts of Dublin. Both are grappling with climate challenges: rising seas, flooding, and the urgent need to rethink how we live with nature. Yet, they offer something profound—local wisdom, community spirit, and a willingness to imagine a better future.
At the heart of this research is a simple idea: solutions to the climate crisis must be just, inclusive, and shaped by the people they serve. Borrowing from a practice called "Design Justice," this project invites residents, scientists, and storytellers to work together, sharing ideas and co-creating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS)—practical ways of using nature itself to combat climate risks. Think sand dunes restored to protect against storms, or green spaces designed to bring communities together while preventing floods. The outcome will be a toolkit for communities everywhere, a short film capturing the journey, and tangible ideas for policymakers.
Dr Valesca Lima and Dr Lili Zhang’s project brings together researchers from the social sciences and technology to improve how citizen voices are heard and used in shaping housing policy in Ireland. Through advanced data analysis and innovative information processing, THRIVE aims to transform how public feedback is processed, interpreted, and applied in policy-making.
Key to this research project is the development of the preliminary called Citizen Insight Prioritization Framework (CIPF), an innovative tool that will be designed to help policymakers prioritize and interpret citizen feedback more effectively. Using a custom-designed language model, the project will sift through extensive citizen contributions in housing consultations to highlight common concerns, the public’s sentiment, and community-specific needs that are often lost in data summaries. Ultimately, THRIVE aims to help to rebuild trust in governance by creating a more inclusive approach to housing policy that reflects the concerns and aspirations of Irish communities and provide policymakers with novel and specific ideas for policy issues.