From Dingle to Balbriggan: DCU Water Institute Leads Community-Led Climate Solutions Under New COALESCE Project
As communities across Ireland face growing climate and biodiversity challenges, researchers at the DCU Water Institute are working alongside local partners to develop solutions that are grounded in place, experience, and collaboration. A newly funded project under Research Ireland’s COALESCE 2025 programme, led by Dr Fiona Murphy and Prof. Fiona Regan, will explore how community-led, nature-based approaches can strengthen climate resilience across both rural and urban settings.
COALESCE, which stands for Collaborative Alliances for Societal Challenges, supports interdisciplinary research that brings together academics, communities, policymakers, and practitioners to address pressing social and environmental issues. This DCU-led project aligns closely with that mission by placing communities at the centre of climate and biodiversity action.
Community Voices at the Centre of Climate Action
The research focuses on how biodiversity and climate resilience initiatives can be co-created with communities using a Design Justice approach. Design Justice emphasises inclusive decision-making and ensures that people most affected by environmental challenges are actively involved in shaping solutions.
Rather than applying one-size-fits-all models, the project examines how local knowledge, lived experience, and community leadership can inform more effective and equitable climate responses.
“Community expertise is central to addressing climate challenges,” said Dr Fiona Murphy. “By working collaboratively with communities in different settings, this project aims to support practical, inclusive solutions that can be adapted and scaled over time.”
Collaborating Across Rural and Urban Contexts
The project brings together partners from two distinct but complementary community settings:
- Dingle’s Nature Based Solutions Hub (Nadúr Nua), a rural coastal initiative supporting locally driven biodiversity and climate action
- Balbriggan Sustainable Energy Community, an urban-based group advancing local climate resilience and sustainable energy initiatives
By creating a structured knowledge-exchange pathway between these communities, the research will explore how lessons learned in one context can inform practice in another. The aim is to identify what works, why it works, and how successful approaches can be adapted for wider application.
Building Capacity and Climate Resilience
Beyond generating academic insight, the project is designed to deliver practical outcomes. It will support capacity building, strengthen community empowerment, and contribute to improved socio-environmental equity in climate action.
Dr Gordon Ogutu, a member of the DCU Water Institute research team, highlighted the broader significance of the work. “This project is about exploring how nature-based solutions can be implemented in ways that are inclusive and grounded in lived experience, while supporting communities already leading biodiversity and climate initiatives.”
The work also reflects DCU’s wider research strengths. “DCU was recently ranked the best university in Ireland for research quality,” Gordon added, “and this project is another example of research that is rooted in collaboration and focused on real-world impact.”
Looking Ahead
As the project gets underway, Dr Fiona Murphy and the DCU Water Institute team will work closely with community partners to co-create knowledge and develop inclusive pathways for climate resilience. At a time when environmental challenges are intensifying, this COALESCE-funded initiative offers a collaborative model for research that is purposeful, community-centred, and impact-driven.
Further updates will be shared as the project progresses.