Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: PostDoctoral Fellowships

The Marine Institute hosted its first Post-Doctoral Fellowship Symposium on Tuesday 25 October where the fellows or their supervisors presented the progress and current research findings of their projects.

These cover a wide range of topics, from the effects of climate change on fish stocks to the monitoring of seabirds around offshore wind installations using unmanned drones.
  
Marine Institute chief executive Dr Paul Connolly said: “It is great to see the breadth of research being carried out under these fellowships which will provide data and scientific evidence to inform policy and decision making on the many current global challenges including climate change mitigation, food security and marine pollution.

“We have excellent researchers using the latest technologies to observe and monitor Irish waters, investigating solutions that will achieve a sustainable low-carbon marine sector for aquaculture, fisheries, renewable ocean energy, and tourism in Ireland. The fellows’ research will also add value to the historic climate, environmental and fisheries datasets held by the Institute.”

The aim of the Post-Doctoral Fellowships Programme is to build capacity by supporting post-doctoral research positions in defined areas of strategic priority for up to four years in duration.

Researchers funded are encouraged to become self-sustaining by successfully leveraging funds under national funding initiatives and the EU Horizon Europe Programme, as well as building further capacity through the development of research teams.

The retention of the Irish researchers carrying out high-quality marine science is of national importance, the Marine Institute says — for both Ireland’s economy and society, including researchers who have received a higher degree (MSc and PhD) under the institute’s Cullen Scholarship Programme.

A total of 17 fellowships with total grant-aid of €6.4 million has been awarded for research under the Post-Doctoral Fellowships Programme from 2019 to 2022, as detailed in the table below:

Project Title

Presenter

Higher Education Institute

Modelling Ireland’s Maritime Transport Industry (MIMTI)

Dr Daniel Cassidy

University of Galway

Expanding the Deep Field Capabilities of Marine Monitoring Platforms

Dr Aoife Hegarty

Atlantic Technological University (Sligo)

Increasing coastal resilience using terrestrial and ocean-based nature-based solutions

*Dr Eugene Farrell

University of Galway

Climate Change Fish Stock Impacts

Dr Louise Vaughan

Atlantic Technological University (Galway)

Novel Mapping of the Shallow Water INFOMAR Data Set: Towards Ireland’s first Shallow Water Atlas (NOMANS_TIF)

Dr Riccardo Arosio

University College Cork

Monitoring the presence, abundance and fate of microplastics and their associated chemicals in an Irish deep water SAC’s (MoP_up)

Dr Alicia Mateos Cárdenas

University College Cork

Use of Recyclable Materials in Sustainable Marine Turbines

Dr Yadong Jiang

University of Galway

Irish marine screening and assessment of emerging contaminants in coastal and transitional environments (I-SECURE)

*Prof Fiona Regan

Dublin City University

Accelerated Seaweed Production for an Innovative and Robust Seaweed Aquaculture in Ireland (ASPIRE)

*Dr Ronan Sulpice

University of Galway

Usage of Irish Seas and Coastal Ecosystems for Tourism Development (UISCE Tourism)

Dr John Deely

University of Galway

Waves of Change (WoC): promoting sustainable development and behavioural change through ocean literacy

*Dr Róisín Nash

Atlantic Technological University (Galway)

AI-based Bird Monitoring using Long Range Unmanned Aerial Drone (AI-Bird) for Offshore RE Installations

*Dr Gerard Dooly

University of Limerick

Shark Island: enhancing sustainable shark ecotourism in Ireland

Dr Luke Cameron

Trinity College Dublin

Progressing Marine Biodiscovery in Ireland (

Dr Laurence Jennings

University of Galway

ACCAI: Decoding Arctic Climate Change: From Archive to Insight

Dr Elwyn de la Vega

University of Galway

Improvement of MI operational modelling system and observation network of Irish marine waters using state-of-the-art model with data assimilation, model parametrization and machine learning techniques

Dr Alexander Shchepetkin

University of Galway

Sustainable Aquaculture: advancing Irish Bivalve Biomass Production by Promoting Seed Abundance and more Disease resilient Stocks (SusAqua)

Dr Sharon Lynch

University College Cork

 

*Presentation by Supervisor.

These projects are supported by the Marine Institute and funded under the Marine Research Programme by the Government of Ireland.

Published in Marine Science

Forty Foot Swimming Spot on Dublin Bay

The 'Forty Foot' is a rocky outcrop located at the southern tip of Dublin Bay at Sandycove, County Dublin from which people have been swimming in the Irish Sea all year round for 300 years or more. It is popular because it is one of few spots between Dublin city and Greystones in County Wicklow that allows for swimming at all stages of the tide, subject to the sea state.

Forty Foot History

Traditionally, the bathing spot was exclusively a men's bathing spot and the gentlemen's swimming club was established to help conserve the area.

Owing to its relative isolation and gender-specific nature it became a popular spot for nudists, but in the 1970s, during the women's liberation movement, a group of female equal-rights activists plunged into the waters and now it is also open to everyone and it is in the control of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Many people believe that swimming in extremely cold water is healthy and good for the immune system.

Is it safe to swim at the Forty Foot?

The Forty-Foot is a great place to swim because there is always enough water to get a dip but like all sea swimming, there are always hazards you need to be aware of.   For example, a lot of people like to dive into to the pool at the Forty-foot but there are submerged rocks that can be hazardous especially at low water.  The Council have erected signs to warn people of the underwater dangers. Other hazards include slippy granite cut stone steps that can often be covered with seaweed and of course marine wildlife including jellyfish that make their presence felt in the summer months as do an inquisitive nearby Sandycove seal colony.

The Forty-foot Christmas Day swim

A Dublin institution that brings people from across Dublin and beyond for a dip in the chilly winter sea. Bathers arrive in the dark from 6 am and by noon the entire forty foot is a sea of red Santa hats!