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

Marine Institute Research Vessel Tom Crean

Ireland’s new marine research vessel will be named the RV Tom Crean after the renowned County Kerry seaman and explorer who undertook three major groundbreaking expeditions to the Antarctic in the early years of the 20th Century which sought to increase scientific knowledge and to explore unreached areas of the world, at that time.

Ireland's new multi-purpose marine research vessel RV Tom Crean, was delivered in July 2022 and will be used by the Marine Institute and other State agencies and universities to undertake fisheries research, oceanographic and environmental research, seabed mapping surveys; as well as maintaining and deploying weather buoys, observational infrastructure and Remotely Operated Vehicles.

The RV Tom Crean will also enable the Marine Institute to continue to lead and support high-quality scientific surveys that contribute to Ireland's position as a leader in marine science. The research vessel is a modern, multipurpose, silent vessel (designed to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research), capable of operating in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Tom Crean is able to go to sea for at least 21 days at a time and is designed to operate in harsh sea conditions.

RV Tom Crean Specification Overview

  • Length Overall: 52.8 m
  • Beam 14m
  • Draft 5.2M 

Power

  • Main Propulsion Motor 2000 kw
  • Bow Thruster 780 kw
  • Tunnel thruster 400 kw

Other

  • Endurance  21 Days
  • Range of 8,000 nautical miles
  • DP1 Dynamic Positioning
  • Capacity for 3 x 20ft Containers

Irish Marine Research activities

The new state-of-the-art multi-purpose marine research vessel will carry out a wide range of marine research activities, including vital fisheries, climate change-related research, seabed mapping and oceanography.

The new 52.8-metre modern research vessel, which will replace the 31-metre RV Celtic Voyager, has been commissioned with funding provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine approved by the Government of Ireland.

According to Aodhán FitzGerald, Research Vessel Manager of the MI, the RV Tom Crean will feature an articulated boom crane aft (6t@ 10m, 3T@ 15m), located on the aft-gantry. This will be largely used for loading science equipment and net and equipment handling offshore.

Mounted at the stern is a 10T A-frame aft which can articulate through 170 degrees which are for deploying and recovering large science equipment such as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV’s), towed sleds and for fishing operations.

In addition the fitting of an 8 Ton starboard side T Frame for deploying grabs and corers to 4000m which is the same depth applicable to when the vessel is heaving but is compensated by a CTD system consisting of a winch and frame during such operations.

The vessel will have the regulation MOB boat on a dedicated davit and the facility to carry a 6.5m Rigid Inflatable tender on the port side.

Also at the aft deck is where the 'Holland 1' Work class ROV and the University of Limericks 'Etain' sub-Atlantic ROV will be positioned. In addition up to 3 x 20’ (TEU) containers can be carried.

The newbuild has been engineered to endure increasing harsher conditions and the punishing weather systems encountered in the North-East Atlantic where deployments of RV Tom Crean on surveys spent up to 21 days duration.

In addition, RV Tom Crean will be able to operate in an ultra silent-mode, which is crucial to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research purposes.

The classification of the newbuild as been appointed to Lloyds and below is a list of the main capabilities and duties to be tasked by RV Tom Crean:

  • Oceanographic surveys, incl. CTD water sampling
  • Fishery research operations
  • Acoustic research operations
  • Environmental research and sampling operation incl. coring
  • ROV and AUV/ASV Surveys
  • Buoy/Mooring operations