Research - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

Trinity team's new chip-scale light technology could power faster AI and data centre communications

Researchers at Trinity have developed a new light-based technology on a tiny chip that could help make the data centres behind cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and global internet services faster and more efficient.

31 Mar 2026

Innovation|Research|Science|Sustainability

Why rural Ireland holds the key to transport decarbonisation

Recent research conducted through a collaboration between the Schools of Physics and Engineering, and published in the journal Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, explores decarbonisation of transport, and the particular challenges that exist in Ireland due to our population density and geography.

31 Mar 2026

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Seashell saviours – Trinity team finds discarded oyster shells can clean polluted water by removing "rare earths"

New research from a team at Trinity College Dublin has unearthed a cheap and environmentally friendly new option for removing pollutants from our water. The key? Oyster shells that would ordinarily end up in landfill sites after consumption.

26 Mar 2026

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Earlier detection, better outcomes: Irish researchers target rising bowel cancer rates with new blood test

Researchers from Trinity, Dublin City University and University College Dublin will use funding of €670,000 from Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund to develop a breakthrough blood-based screening test.

26 Mar 2026

Awards and Funding|Health|Research|Science

Why are there no gigantic dragonflies terrorising the skies today?

Gigantic dragonfly-like insects – the “griffinflies” – ruled the skies around 300 million years ago, but they have long been consigned to evolution’s graveyard.

25 Mar 2026

Environment|Research|Science

“Tiny but beautifully formed”: Bronze Age spindle whorl connects ancient city of Troy to Ireland

A tiny Bronze Age spindle whorl, excavated from the ancient city of Troy, will take centre stage in Trinity this week as experts and artists gather to examine the biography of the only artefact from the ancient city of Troy in Ireland.

24 Mar 2026

Culture|Research

Researchers offer an exciting treatment to target the host, and not the bacteria

This published research tells us that Trinity scientists have discovered a way to “train” the immune system to better fight drug-resistant infections like MRSA and TB. Today is World TB Day 2026.

24 Mar 2026

Health|Research

The grief myth: it doesn’t come in stages or follow a checklist – like love, it endures

Our ideas about “normal” grief are deeply shaped by the world we have inherited, writes Aoife Lynam, School of Education, in a piece for The Conversation.

23 Mar 2026

Research|Society

Machine learning could help predict how people with depression respond to treatment

Trinity researchers have found that a machine learning model could help clinicians predict which people with depression are more likely to improve with digital cognitive behavioural therapy compared to antidepressant medication.

19 Mar 2026

Health|Research|Society

Groundbreaking Trinity research reveals “leaky” brain barrier as driver of chronic brain damage in retired combat and collision sports athletes

The work, led by teams at Trinity and the FutureNeuro Research Ireland Centre, has pinpointed the mechanism linking some sports injuries to poor brain health in retired athletes.

18 Mar 2026

Health|Research|Science

The Keepsake Chronicles: stories in times of dementia

Keepsake Chronicles is a collaboration between a nurse, a creative writer and a photographer. As participants tell their stories, we record their words and photograph them in the act of telling. This captures expressions rich with emotion that are inseparable from the stories themselves.

16 Mar 2026

Health|Research|Society

“Is Tábhachtaí Dea-cháil ná Saibhreas"

Mar dhuine de bhunaitheoirí Chonradh na Talún sa bhliain 1879 is fearr cuimhne ar Mhícheál Dáibhéad sa lá atá inniu ann, ach bhí sé ina iriseoir fiosrúcháin freisin agus ina fhear feachtais agus aighnis ar son chúis an phoblachtachais, leasú chóras na bpríosún, oideachas nach mbeadh faoi stiúir eaglaisí agus cearta pinsin.

12 Mar 2026

Culture|Research

Mental health toll of flooding in Ireland highlighted in new research

The psychological impacts of flooding in Ireland often far outlast the physical damage, according to new research from Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University and National College of Ireland.

12 Mar 2026

Research|Society

Six female film directors celebrating Spain’s linguistic diversity on screen

Catherine Barbour, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, writes in The Conversation about the Spanish film industry and a new generation of female film-makers.

10 Mar 2026

Culture|Research|Society

We are in a digital version of the enclosures – like the landowners, big tech has power without responsibility

Nana Nwachukwu, PhD Candidate based in Trinity's AI Accountability Lab, writes for The Conversation, saying the recent Grok controversy represents the endpoint of a longer withdrawal from the responsibilities that once accompanied control of digital infrastructure.

9 Mar 2026

Business|Culture|Research|Science|Society

What Irish politician Thomas Gould’s accent going viral in Jamaica reveals about colonial history

Jane Ohlmeyer, School of Histories and Humanities, writes for The Conversation about Ireland and Jamaica's complicated shared history.

6 Mar 2026

Culture|Research|Society

Trinity partners with Open Forum for AI to advance transparent and accountable AI systems

Researchers from ADAPT and Trinity bring particular strength and expertise in standards development, AI governance, and human-centered system design, helping to ensure that openness is built into the technology and the way it is deployed.

5 Mar 2026

Research|Science|Society

Women providing philanthropic leadership to deliver inclusive, long-term social change

The first in-depth qualitative exploration of contemporary women’s philanthropy in Ireland was conducted by Trinity Business School’s Centre for Social Innovation in partnership with Community Foundation Ireland and Trinity Development and Alumni.

5 Mar 2026

Business|Community|Research

Acmhainní códaithe Gaeilge le cur ar fáil ag foireann Pytch i gcomhpháirtíocht le Kinia

Tá taighdeoirí ó Choláiste na Tríonóide, i gcomhpháirtíocht le Kinia, tar éis sraith nua d’acmhainní códaithe Gaeilge a chur le chéile atá deartha chun tacú le scoláirí meánscoile atá ag tosú ag códú le Pytch.

4 Mar 2026

Research|Science

Pytch team partners with Kinia to produce Irish-language coding resources

Researchers from Trinity, in partnership with Kinia, have produced a new set of Irish-language coding resources designed to support secondary school students beginning to code with Pytch.

4 Mar 2026

Research|Science|Students

Trinity team delivers new universal design guidelines for long-term residential care settings

Researchers from Trinity recently launched new universal design guidelines to enhance quality of life, sustainability, and resilience in long-term residential care settings for older people in Ireland.

3 Mar 2026

Community|Environment|Health|Research|Sustainability

Creative Brain Week is back for 2026!

Now in its fifth year, the event returns to Dublin next week, March 2–6, 2026, seeding new ideas into society, culture and health with talks, exhibitions and workshops.

27 Feb 2026

Health|Research

Trinity-ADAPT team’s AI-enhanced, maritime vessel detection system wins Research Ireland's Defence Innovation Challenge

Researchers from Trinity and the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology won the Maritime Situational Awareness Challenge after creating a system that will strengthen Ireland’s naval security.

25 Feb 2026

Awards and Funding|Environment|Innovation|Research|Science

Some animals “see the world" more quickly than others

From dragonflies to starfish, new Trinity research shows that the speed of visual perception across the animal kingdom is driven by lifestyle and environment, with fast-paced lives demanding faster vision.

24 Feb 2026

Environment|Research|Science

A landmark “evolutionary double-bind” strategy to overcome treatment resistance in prostate cancer

A new study led by researchers from Trinity and the Moffitt Cancer Center shows how radiation therapy can be used to expose—and then eliminate—therapy-resistant cancer cells using natural killer cell immunotherapy.

23 Feb 2026

Health|Research|Science

Trauma-informed, gender-sensitive care crucial for women

New Trinity study is first of its kind in Ireland to specifically focus on women to address the disproportionately poor physical health of this population when compared to the general population.

20 Feb 2026

Health|Research|Society

Endangered marine life is being caught in fishing nets, but it doesn’t need to be

Dr Nicholas Payne from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences co-authored this piece for The Conversation, following a new four-year study from Ireland’s national Marine Institute which highlights the particular problem tangle nets are causing in Ireland.

19 Feb 2026

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Key immune trigger identified that may be a central player in MS progression

Researchers believe this study further highlights that a key immune system switch warrants full investigation in MS and may be a promising potential target for future MS therapies.

19 Feb 2026

Health|Research

IrelandQCI team demonstrates quantum-secure communications with Dublin City Council

Researchers from the CONNECT Centre headquartered at Trinity, working with partners in the IrelandQCI project, successfully demonstrated quantum-secure communication at Dublin City Council headquarters today as part of the project’s first engagement with a local authority.

17 Feb 2026

Research|Science

Professor Yvonne Buckley honoured with Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal

Professor Buckley, a world leader in plant and animal population biology, has been honoured with the 2026 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Environmental Sciences, Geography and Geosciences.

12 Feb 2026

Awards and Funding|Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability