28th Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium

The world in 2018 is at a critical juncture regarding many relevant issues including climate change, global access to clean water, the rise of antibiotic resistant microorganisms and concomitant socioeconomic issues. This year’s colloquium overarching theme of “Arriving at a Sustainable Future” should stimulate lively discussion. For many years we have envisaged a sustainable future, however it is now timely to make this a reality by “Arriving at a Sustainable Future”.

Environ is the longest running and largest forum for environmental researchers in Ireland with over 275 delegates attending the event annually. It provides a high-visibility platform for young researchers to present their findings to an audience drawn from academia, government bodies and agencies and industry.

The conference will begin on Monday, March 26th with a choice of three education and training workshops on offer to delegates from 2pm-5pm:

Environ Workshop A: Field Trip – Haulbowline Island Remediation Project

Environ Workshop B: Bringing Research to the next level – Commercialisation, Code of Conduct, IP and Technology Transfer

Environ Workshop C: Statistical analysis for research – using SPSS statistical software

There is a small fee of €10 for each workshop that needs to be paid when booking the event.

The Environ 2018 Conference will open on the CIT Bishopstown Campus with a Public Event on Monday evening the 26th March at 8pm. This public event is titled ‘Flooding in the Cork Region – Impacts and Solutions’. This question and answer public event will provide a forum to discuss the phenomenon of flooding and its impacts and potential solutions. This is now a very topical issue and relevant in a local Cork region context and a broader National and indeed International context. The panel of speakers includes Mr. Ezra MacManamon of the Office of Public Works, Mr. Ken Leahy of Arup Consulting Engineers and Ms. Claire Nash owner of the Nash19 restaurant located in Cork City Centre and which has experienced flooding. The event will be moderated by Mr. Jonathan Healy, the well known Newstalk presenter, broadcaster and communications consultant.

The plenary session on the Tuesday morning will be delivered by Eamon Ryan, TD and Leader of the Green Party and Dr Jonathan Derham, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Eamon Ryan is the Leader of the Green Party. He has spent the last twenty years working at the highest policy level in local government, the Dáil, and in the European Council of Ministers. Eamon formerly chaired the Digital and Energy Policy Groups for the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin. He has also worked on www.climategathering.org to establish a safe space to consider how to communicate the issue of Climate Change. He had previously served as Dáil TD for Dublin South from 2002 to 2011 and was Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2007 to 2011. He was founding chairman of the Dublin Cycling Campaign and before entering politics he ran two successful businesses, Irish Cycling Safaris and Belfield Bike Shop.

Dr Jonathan Derham, is a NUI sciences graduate (Cork & Galway) with a Master’s Degree in Public Service Management. Jonathan has worked for over 27 years in the environmental field for public and private sector employers in Ireland and UK, and has broad experience of environmental policy and regulation nationally and in the EU. He currently heads up the Evidence & Assessment Programme in EPA incorporating Research, Climate Change, SEA, Analytics, and Assessment & Reporting, and which included production of the latest State of Our Environment Report.

This year on the Wednesday morning there will be a second plenary session between 9.30 and 10am, where Josien Ruijter (NV HVC) will present on the Dutch experience of wastewater sludge incineration and phosphate recycling pathways. This is a welcome addition to the conference.