iCRAG members awarded research infrastructure funding

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, has today announced a €17.7 million investment in nine research infrastructure projects through Research Ireland’s Research Infrastructure Programme. The awards will contribute to the advancement of high-quality and high-impact research activities across Ireland.

“Characterising Earth Materials using Multi-Sensor Core Logger Analysis” (Earth SCAn) has been awarded €600,113 by Research Ireland and is co-funded by University College Dublin and Geological Survey Ireland.

Earth SCAn is led by iCRAG members Prof. Peter Haughton, Dr Mark Coughlan, Dr Aline Melo and Dr Koen Torremans and will allow for the advanced characterisation of Earth materials (e.g. rock, soil and sediment), providing critical data for interdisciplinary research into climate change, engineering, energy, critical raw materials exploration, archaeology, food security, ecosystem services, groundwater, and geohazards. EarthScan will develop a Multi-Sensor Core Logger Analysis platform (MSCL) for the measurement of co-located petrophysical, geochemical, and hyperspectral data on large volumes of hard rock and sediment core.

Announcing the funding, Minister Lawless commented: “This targeted investment in research infrastructure will help to future-proof the conducting of high-quality research endeavours across our higher education institutions and in a wide range of disciplines. It is important for researchers to be equipped with the innovative tools and the conducive environments that can help deliver research excellence and impact.”

In welcoming the announcement, Celine Fitzgerald, Interim Chief Executive of Research Ireland, said: “The Research Infrastructure Programme supports the research community in building and sustaining cutting-edge infrastructure to accomplish high-quality, impactful, and innovative research. The programme encourages partnerships and collaboration between different cohorts of researchers in Ireland, across academia and enterprise.”