The Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water community is now over 100 strong, including a cross-jurisdictional operations team based across Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Reading. We have established collaborative agreements across all 14 of our constituent research institutions, reinforcing our commitment to cross-border cooperation. We are proud to work with world-leading researchers across our 14 institutions and continue to expand our team.  

 

We have secured philanthropic support to create a unique multi-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional cohort of six additional PhD students across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The Sunflower PhD programme will provide five studentships funded by The Sunflower Charitable Foundation and an additional PhD studentship is funded by the Fernhill Foundation through Community Foundation Ireland. 

 

Our Policy Response Unit is now operational and actively engaging with policymakers. We were pleased to welcome UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP, together with former President of Ireland and Chair of the Elders, Professor Mary Robinson, to the Climate+ Co-Centre at Trinity College Dublin in October 2024. We have hosted knowledge exchange workshops with the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs of Northern Ireland, attended by Minister Andrew Muir, and continue to strengthen pathways for translating academic research into policy action. Our policy reports and guidance, including contributions to the Office for Environmental Protection and Climate Change Advisory Council, are helping shape evidence-based decision-making on the intersection between climate change and biodiversity loss. 

 

Collaboration with industry partners is well underway and we have held several co-development research workshops addressing important problems in agriculture, land management, investment in carbon and nature and managing economic risks and opportunities arising from global change. We have fostered student entrepreneurship, supporting emerging innovators who have joined us at the Climate+ Co-Centre. 

  

Public engagement is central to our mission. We have run workshops bringing researchers together with local farmers to discuss future potential for diversification of farming enterprises, we have designed and delivered a workshop on adapting to sea level rise for second level students, we are collaborating with artists and local communities to spark and inform place-based conversations around water quality, biodiversity and sea level rise through a Research Ireland “Discover” grant and through a collaboration with Creative Ireland’s “House on the Beach” project. We have worked with partners to deliver a series of civic conversations focused on how we eat, heat, travel, waste and grow good participating in a mixture of science, art and cultural festivals across the jurisdictions covered by the Climate+ Co-Centre.   

 

We are also committed to expanding the quality and influence of our research through international collaboration. Climate + researchers have been successful in achieving Horizon Europe funding for nature-based solutions and democratic climate transitions. As we enter our second year, we remain committed to researching solutions for preventing and living with climate change, protecting and restoring ecosystems, developing sustainable economies and improving quality of life for all. 

 

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