RESEARCHERS at three Limerick third-level institutions are to benefit from a combined funding injection of more than €100,000 from Research Ireland.
The funding comes under Research Ireland’s New Foundations awards, which aim to support researchers in tackling national and global issues.
12 research projects in Limerick have been awarded a combined €123,140.62, out of a €683,677 nationwide funding round, including 11 projects at the University of Limerick, one at Mary Immaculate College, and one at the Technological University of the Shannon.
Research Ireland says that the awards will “support researchers in developing collaborative projects with community organisations and government departments” that will “address health, social, environmental, and economic challenges in Ireland and beyond”.
Among those funded in Limerick is a ‘novel method for microplastic detection in the Shannon and Zambezi rivers’, which proposes using “advanced spectroscopic techniques and electron microscopy to analyse water samples collected from the Shannon River in Ireland and the Zambezi River near Kariba Lake in Zambia”.
The project by Amit Haldar at TUS will also use an artificial neural network to identify and classify microplastics, aiming to develop a “cost-effective and reliable method for monitoring microplastic pollution in freshwater systems”.
University of Limerick researcher Áine Kearns’ project, ‘Collaboratively working towards a child-friendly justice’, will focus on methods of allowing child victims of crime to have their voices heard in the justice system.
The project outlines that the “adversarial” Irish criminal justice system, “set up for adults”, relies heavily on oral testimony, which can be difficult for children and young people. The research will study new methods of supporting “child participation in the justice system” through supports such as intermediaries.
Other Limerick projects will focus on media representation of Traveller and Roma communities, the stigma around infertility and gynaecological cancer care, and the promotion of gender equality in physics.
