Science - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

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

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

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

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

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-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

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

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

CONNECT and iCRAG launch SmartScape: a new Centre-to-Centre collaboration using fibre networks to sense the city

SmartScape brings together experts to explore explore how Dublin’s existing telecommunications infrastructure can be transformed into a powerful, city-scale sensing platform.

12 Feb 2026

Innovation|Research|Science|Society

Simulating quantum chaos: how Trinity researchers are helping to push quantum computers beyond their limits

How rapidly does information spread through a quantum system? How does a quantum system forget its past? And can today’s noisy quantum computers tell us anything trustworthy about the limits of these deeply complex regimes known as quantum chaos?

11 Feb 2026

Research|Science

Good for the land, but what about the farmer? New research outlines how Agri-Environment Schemes impact mental health

Trinity research shows that depending on how schemes are designed and delivered, wellbeing impacts can be positive or negative. Time spent in nature and peer discussion groups are key to fostering positive wellbeing outcomes.

5 Feb 2026

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Joly Cancer Leadership Programme gives third award to TSJCI surgeon

Mr Fitzgerald said: “Through the award, I hope to investigate the immune and metabolic behaviours of head and neck cancers. It is hoped that discoveries from these studies will translate to meaningful clinical insights to guide future clinical decision making and care for head and neck cancer patients."

5 Feb 2026

Awards and Funding|Health|Research|Science

“I see a rubber duck” – babies categorise objects in the brain at just two months old

The research, led by neuroscientists from Trinity, combined brain imaging with artificial intelligence models. It enriches our understanding of what babies are thinking and how they learn in the earliest months of life.

3 Feb 2026

Health|Research|Science

Trinity geneticists seek new treatments for devastating childhood dementia

European Rare Diseases Research Alliance funding of €440,000 will allow the team to seek new treatments for Multiple Sulfatase Deficiency, an ultra-rare, deadly, inherited disorder where the body can't properly break down fats and sugars.

27 Jan 2026

Health|Research|Science

Minister O'Brien visits Trinity College Dublin SAF Research Facility at SMBC Aviation Capital Headquarters

Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien visited the Trinity College Dublin Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Research Facility at SMBC Aviation Capital's headquarters in Dublin earlier this week.

21 Jan 2026

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Blocking immune cells in the brain can prevent infant forgetting

Blocking microglia prevents infant forgetting and improves memory in mice, suggesting that these specialist immune cells in the brain may actively manage memory formation and dictate what, and when, we forget.

21 Jan 2026

Health|Research|Science

€6.5 million PEACE-Air project to improve air quality

Researchers from Trinity are working with collaborators across the island of Ireland on a major cross-border initiative to improve air quality.

20 Jan 2026

Environment|Health|Research|Science

New ALMA astronomical survey reveals teenage years and “growing pains” of new worlds

Astronomers have, for the first time, captured a detailed snapshot of planetary systems in an era long shrouded in mystery.

20 Jan 2026

Research|Science

SEAGROW project to advance sustainable seaweed cultivation and ecosystem restoration across EU waters

Europe is backing a new flagship initiative to help scale sustainable seaweed cultivation while strengthening marine ecosystems across European waters.

17 Jan 2026

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Water erosion contributes to generation of micro and nanoplastics linked to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases

A team of scientists, led by researchers from the AMBER Research Ireland Centre in Trinity, has determined that microbubble-induced erosion releases micro and nanoplastics (MNPs) into water.

16 Jan 2026

Environment|Health|Research|Science

OpenIreland testbed transitions to ADAPT; expands into AI-driven network sensing

The OpenIreland testbed, a nationally significant and internationally connected research infrastructure supporting experimental research in open, programmable networking, is entering a new phase within the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre at Trinity.

15 Jan 2026

Innovation|Research|Science

Engines of light: new theory suggests we could increase useful energy obtained from sunlight

Physicists from Trinity believe new insights into the behaviour of light may offer a new means of solving one of science’s oldest challenges – how to turn heat into useful energy.

9 Jan 2026

Research|Science

Nine exciting discoveries from Trinity researchers in 2025

Trinity researchers have made significant discoveries this year enriching our culture, building better futures and broadening our understanding of the world.

23 Dec 2025

Culture|Health|Research|Science|Society

EU team to detect earthquakes and infrastructure damage using internet cables

Researchers have begun a new €5 million EU-funded project that will allow fibre optic cable lines under our roads, fields and seas to double up as sensors that spot earthquakes and infrastructure damage, monitor traffic, and detect changes in the natural environment.

22 Dec 2025

Awards and Funding|Environment|Innovation|Research|Science