Griffith Awards for Geoscience

The Government rightly recognises the importance of scientific research and its applications. We cannot properly interact with that which we do not understand. We cannot conserve when we do not know how to value. And we cannot exploit when we do not know the implications of such activity.

GSI

I am delighted that the Geological Survey of Ireland falls under the aegis of my Department. Its works oftentimes quietly, but no less significantly to further knowledge and in the quest for public good.

That work is important in its own right but for those who like to measure in monetary value – geoscience industries contribute over €2 billion annually to our wealth. Geoscience services are worth €130 million to the economy each year.

Geoscience will have a central role in the Government’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation. The GSI’s joint publication earlier this year, in conjunction with the Royal Irish Academy of a National Geoscience Programme maps the way forward for the next seven years. It sets out a clear and challenging vision, encompassing the sustainable management of our environment, the development of our natural resources and understanding natural hazards.

Awards

The awards we are announcing today will play a key role in the implementation of that vision. They are part of a family of award schemes, including the Parsons Energy Awards, the Beaufort Marine awards and the Richard Griffith Geoscience awards showing the commitment within my department and within Government to support scientific endeavour.

Awards in any discipline are always important. They give necessary recognition for work done but these, unlike the Oscars, are much more than congratulations. They are practical, research-based awards providing much-needed financial backing to the best of Irish geoscience research and work.

This practicality and innovation is fitting testament to Richard John Griffith. His work marking the boundaries of every county, barony, parish and townland prepared the ground for our first Ordinance Survey. Previous to this massive body of work he had helped us examine our bogs and how we could improve them and surveyed mineral districts.

And he took his scientific responsibility so seriously he was involved in preparing a Parliamentary Bill to provide for the general valuation of Ireland. He exemplifies the marriage of science and public service – the best of men.

I hope today’s award winners will have a similar chance to marry the scientific method with appropriate civic minded-ness and engagement.

Specifics

The projects range from investigating the interaction with groundwater and sea water in coastal zones to the how carbon dioxide accumulates in underground reservoirs. One project will examine the impacts of climate change and human behaviour on their groundwater.

I am pleased by the notion that County Clare will become a premier global training site for petroleum geologists just as today it is a premier training ground for some of our best traditional musicians.

I am particularly happy that the awards will involve our leading universities in cross-border and international co-operation with other institutions. This ties in with this Government’s intention that Ireland become a centre for scientific excellence, for Research and Development and an international exporter of this knowledge.

The sharing of knowledge will be enabled by the project that will open GSI data on a web-enabled basis. The sharing of data allows for different manipulations and replications necessary for ongoing professional development.

Graduate Research

The all-Ireland initiative to establish an Irish Geoscience Graduate Programme is also very welcome. Our students should have one centre whereby they can realise the exciting prospect that it is for anyone to become a geoscientist, involving rigorous research, travel, fieldwork and contributions to public policy.

The funding for 13 new Researcher posts will allow our talented geoscientists to develop their careers in relative security.

13 PhD Studentships will be created in priority areas of geoscience, nurturing the skills we require in our national knowledge economy.

31 student placements will stimulate undergraduate research and opportunities in the area also.

Education and Outreach

The outreach proposal between the Geological museum in TCD, the Natural History Museum and the Ulster museum will only increase interest in these excellent centres.

I am also delighted by the proposed ‘Planet Earth’ TV series on the Irish landscape. Like the GSI’s Written in Stone, it will invigorate and inform a mass audience of our surroundings and our interaction with them.

I have seen on the GSI’s website their fine work in education and outreach also, such as the beautifully produced colouring books on fossils and Irish flowers (complete with their Latin names) which I hope to get for my own children’s delectation and education.

Importance of universities

The universities and institutions here today are to be congratulated on the very high standard of their continuing work.

We are aware of the importance of our universities and of the necessity to support this work. Universities are humanist institutions (in the widest sense of the world). They embody a methodical ‘spirited curiosity’. The instincts of societies sometimes is to ‘rest on our laurels’, to feel that we have arrived at a safe and explained worldview (ignoring the centuries of knowledge and innovation that underpins this), to find others who hold similar views for our own mutual reassurance and to journey through life on this secure and unquestioned basis.

Universities do not ignore complexities and look at old questions in new ways. Our impulse to cocoon and to clan. Universities shake us out of this lazy and ultimately dangerous intellectual stagnation. Governments should always recognise this and support the free and immensely valuable work of academic exploration.

Geodesy

And exploration is the stuff of geoscience. It is the foundation of discovery. I recently came across the term ‘Geodesy’. Apparently it is more-often known as ‘geodetics’ dealing with the measurement and representation of the earth, its gravitational field etc (you all know this more than I).
These awards are intended to contribute to our collective national geodesy, our journey under and into the complex and dynamic earth. Our natural desire to know more and situate ourselves appropriately in the natural world. Once again, may I congratulate all those here today and ask that you bring us all on your journey of natural knowledge.

END

Award details

• An award of €3.1 million to the Biogeoscience Research Group – Dr. Colin Brown of NUI Galway.
  This contract will seek to improve our understanding of the seabed offshore Ireland using the databases of GSI and the Marine Institute. In addition it will investigate how groundwater interacts with seawater in the coastal zones and develop models for the behaviour of groundwater.
  
• Award of €1.8 million to the Groundwater Research Group of Queen’s University Belfast, Dr. Flynn & Dr. Ofterdinger.
  This project aims to produce more realistic models of Irish aquifers and to evaluate the impacts of climate change and human behaviour on their groundwater.
  
• Award of €1.5 million to the Marine and Petroleum Geology Research Group at UCD, Prof. Shannon
  This contract will address sedimentary processes in the deep waters and underlying sediments of the Atlantic Margin. This will lead to an improved understanding of potential oil and gas targets and help to establish County Clare as a premier global training site for petroleum geologists. It will also investigate the prospects for carbon sequestration underground in the vicinity of the Shannon estuary.
  
• Award of €842,000 to the Coastal & Marine Research Centre of University College Cork, Dr. Valerie Cummins.
  This contract will facilitate open access to GSI data on a web-enabled basis. This will provide for the widest possible sharing and manipulation of geoscience data within and between the GSI and academic institutions. It will also provide critical mass of staff and a nucleus of expertise to support the development of training opportunities for knowledge and information management.
  
• Awards of €640,000 and €521,000 respectively to the Geophysics Research Groups at University College Dublin and University of Ulster at Coleraine.
  These linked contracts will establish methodologies for understanding how injected carbon dioxide accumulates in underground reservoirs and will carry out numerical simulations of the process for a potential site. This work will also assess the potential for deep geothermal energy (based on deep Earth’s natural heat).
  
• Award of €407,000 to Irish Geoscience Graduate Programme Jones, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Prof. Alan G. Jones
  The aim of this proposal is to establish an Irish Geoscience Graduate Programme (IGGP).
  It is an All-Ireland initiative from the heads of the geoscience schools/departments at five universities (NUIG, TCD, UCC, UCD, UU) and one research institute (DIAS) involved in the training of post-graduate students in the geosciences.
  After five years, the project plans to have at least doubled, if not trebled, the number of new post graduate geoscience students being taken on each year by the above institutions.
  
• Award of €120,000 to the Geology for schools and museums - Wyse-Jackson, TCD
  Geoschol is a grouping of three museums that hold geological materials (1.Geological Museum, TCD; 2. Natural History Museum, Dublin; 3. Ulster Museum, Belfast).
  The aim of their proposal is to produce and distribute geoscience outreach products to primary and/or secondary schools and to museums throughout the island of Ireland.
  The group will provide learning resources utilising both web and more traditional media; providing schools with rock sets, fossil sets, dvds, booklets and posters.
  
• Award of €100,000 to Planet Earth” TV outreach Holocene
  Holocene Productions Ltd was set up in 2004 specifically to produce a television series on the evolution of the Irish Landscape and its impact on the social and economic development of the country, aimed at a general audience and particularly to assist in the teaching of geoscience subjects in secondary schools.
  They plan to produce a book and a DVD, which will be distributed to secondary schools on the island of Ireland.
  Their "Planet Earth" project will be produced by Tyrone Productions Ltd.