Dr Matthew Chersich, from Trinity College Dublin's School of Medicine, is a lead on the "Climate Change in Ireland (CHI)" project, which has successfully secured funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a Government of Ireland initiative, funded by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.
This significant award was part of a larger EPA announcement on June 19, which saw €6.9 million allocated for 11 new environmental and climate research projects across Ireland. These projects will involve 98 staff and students across 27 organisations.
Dr Matthew’s project entitled "Establishing long-term systems for monitoring the impacts of climate change on health in Ireland," was funded under the "Delivering a Healthy Environment" thematic area. Dr Matthew elaborated on the project's core objectives, stating: "the EPA funding will enable us to characterise the relationships between climate exposures and health outcomes in Ireland and identify the highest-risk populations and climate hazards to
target". He further emphasized the long-term vision, explaining that the project "will provide a baseline for assessing trends in health impacts and the effectiveness of adaptation responses". Dr Matthew underscored the critical
necessity of this work stating that "all activities together set the stage for longterm tracking systems, essential for a systematic, coherent and coordinated response to the climate crisis in Ireland".
Beyond its national importance, Dr Matthew highlighted the project's broader contribution: "within a wider context, the project will contribute to broader efforts to ensure Ireland takes its place at the forefront of the climate response
globally". A particularly "novel" aspect he noted is its extensive collaborative framework, bringing together "researchers from across Trinity, together with leading experts in the HSE, UCD, Queens University in Northern Ireland and the Wits Planetary Health Division in South Africa".
This increased scale of research funding reflects the critical role that research and innovation play in addressing climate change, environmental pollution, and biodiversity decline. Dr. Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, congratulated the successful researchers, expressing anticipation for the progress of these "exciting projects" in the years ahead. The EPA's research program is a key element of its 2030 Research Strategy, designed to provide scientific support for environmental policy development and implementation, including the Climate Action Plan. To date in 2025, the EPA has announced a total of €21.4 million in research funding.