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The government will provide €1 million funding for 41 small scale geoscience research projects in 2016.

The projects have been funded by the Geological Survey of Ireland in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources as part of the 2015/2016 GSI Geoscience Research Short Call, and will be of less than one year in duration.

“We ae funding a very wide range of applied projects, from using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for coastal mapping to landslide monitoring and 3D modelling of shipwrecks. We also have projects on groundwater drinking supplies, recycling of mine waste, geotourism, geothermal energy and seismicity in Ireland. The outputs of these projects will go a long way to help the country understand and manage its often hidden natural resources.

“The short turnaround of these projects will also mean the impacts for society will occur quickly. The standard and quality of the applications received have proven that Irish geoscience researchers, both in industry and third level can compete at the highest level and can directly support geoscience industries in Ireland,” said Mr Koen Verbruggen, director of the Geological Survey of Ireland.

The research programme will complement substantial recent government investments in this area such as the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geoscience (iCRAG), co-funded by SFI and industry partners.

On release of the details of the successful awardees, GSI research manager Dr Aoife Braiden said: “By making the funding available to both SME and academic partners, we have seen an increase in participation from industry in research activities and a welcomed increase in collaborations between the public and private sector in terms of geoscience research. We hope that funding such as this will help to grow and strengthen the valuable geoscience sector in Ireland and answer real problems for both industry and the relevant authorities.”

A total of 37 per cent of applications were from SMEs, 54 per cent from universities and nine per cent from other organisations. A total of 29 per cent of applications related to the Tellus programme (www.tellus.ie ), 29 per cent to the INFOMAR programme (www.infomar.ie ) and 32 per cent to other geoscience topics including energy, minerals and raw materials, groundwater, geotourism, public perception and geological mapping.