Our research
Research in the School of Natural Sciences focusses on understanding the real tangible world in which we live. It is concerned with the formation and continued shaping of the Earth, the origin of organisms that inhabit it, and the interactions we as humans have with this unique resource. We are home to 36 principle investigators spanning the traditional discliplines of Botany, Geography, Geology and Zoology. Since 2000, research income for the School totaled over €31 million. Twenty-three postdoctoral fellows and more than 140 postgraduate research students are currently involved in research in the School. Collectively staff and postgraduate research students have published more than 900 internationally peer-reviewed articles since 2000.
Research Activity
Research activity in the School falls largely into four interdisciplinary research groupings:
- Earth and Environmental Science - processes of Earth's formation and dynamics of environmental change
- Ecology and Evolution - processes driving the diversity of life and the functioning of ecosystems
- Molecular and Comparative Physiology - factors shaping and constraining the diversity and form of life
- Society, Space and Environment - present and historic interactions between society and the environment
Funding
Researchers in the School receive their funding from a diversity of external sources including the European Union FP5 and FP6, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Enterprise Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Health Research Board (HRB), the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Irish Academy, Teagasc, Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology (IRCSET)/Embark and a range of private sources.