AquaVitae H2020
AquaVitae is a new research and innovation project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and coordinated by Dr Philip James of Nofima in Norway. The project consortium consists of 36 partners, from 16 different countries, spread across four continents. In addition to Europe, partners are situated in countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean, including Brazil, […]
Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration in Nephin Forest
This Marine Institute funded research project (2021-2025) is led by ATU Galway City in partnership with Marine Institute Newport. The multi-disciplinary team are gathering and assessing baseline data on habitat composition and structure, and bird populations within the Nephin Forest area of Wild Nephin National Park against which future restoration actions can be measured. In […]
Role of seaweed aquaculture in marine ecosystems
This RISE project builds up on previous field and laboratory investigations conducted in GENIALG aiming to quantify the effect of kelp aquaculture on marine ecosystems. The projects focuses on their impacts on benthic communities and their role in food webs, as biodiversity reservoirs and nursery habitats for fish. This project will determine and quantify the […]
BASEMAN
Defining the baselines and standards for microplastics analyses in European waters (BASEMAN) is an international collaborative and interdisciplinary research project funded by JPI Oceans Aims Although microplastics (MP) are recognized as an emerging contaminant in the environment, currently neither sampling, extraction, purification nor identification approaches are standardized, making the increasing numbers of MP studies hardly […]
Humpback Whales in Irish Waters
Humpback whales are iconic species in coastal Irish waters. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, through its https://iwdg.ie/whale-track-ireland/ project have built photo-ID catalogue spanning a 20 years. These data coupled with a strong partnership between the IWDG and GMIT are able to support a PhD student, Miguel Blázquez Hervás (see https://mfrc-atu.ie/meet-the-team/miguel-blazquez-hervas) The project will aim […]
Identification of important areas for marine birds in Irish offshore waters
Seabirds spend most of their life at sea, i.e. during the non-breeding season or foraging in the breeding season. As part of a strategy to protect seabirds, we need to identify offshore areas that are ecologically important for them. Identifying these areas is challenging, seabird species have a variety of foraging ranges, strategies and habitat […]
Microplastics: implications for policy
This project is coordinated by GMIT and funded by Seas At Risk (2020-2021). The main goal is to produce a technical report focussed on microplastic impacts in the environment while suggesting a set of policy recommendations to mitigate plastic pollution impacts. A wide range of stakeholders from governmental, non-governmental organisations and academics worldwide are being […]
Plastics, Prawns, and Patterns
This is a collaborative project funded by the Marine Institute, Galway, and coordinated by GMIT (2020-2021). The research is investigating microplastic loading and retention times in the Dublin Bay prawn Nephrops norvegicus around the Irish coast. The project will also investigate microplastic concentration within the sediment habitat. The Dublin Bay prawn is an extremely valuable fishery resource within […]
Marine biodiversity monitoring using environmental DNA (eDNA)
Project outputs Foster a network of international collaborators on the application of omics technologies to study marine communities Generate postgraduate opportunities Publish high-impact scientific peer-review papers Funding sources Blue Growth & Marine Planning Scheme, established under the Union Priority 6 (Integrated Maritime Policy) of Ireland’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Operational Programme. Marine Institute […]
Republic of Ireland Beached Bird Survey
The Republic of Ireland Beached Bird Survey (RIBBS) is a citizen science based research project to assess the potential of beached seabirds as a marine litter monitoring tool in Ireland. Beached seabirds are collected by researchers and volunteers and, the litter content in the stomachs of birds is used as a measure for the presence […]
