The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new research awards of €6.9 million for environmental and climate research in Ireland.

This brings to €21.4 million the total research funding announced by the EPA to date in 2025.

The funding will support 11 innovative projects, which will involve 98 staff and students across 27 organisations.

It will also build research capacity and skills in areas relevant to tackling important environmental challenges, according to the EPA.

Successful projects will address policy-relevant topics such as:

Understanding the impacts of noise pollution on health and the environment;
Exploring young people’s attitudes, knowledge and actions around climate change;
Mechanisms to support scaling-up of the circular economy;
Understanding how exposure to future sea level rise could impact population dynamics;
Studying remote Irish islands to enhance our understanding of the response and resilience of offshore environments to climate change.

Announcing the funding, director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, Dr. Eimear Cotter said: “The increased scale of research funding being announced by the EPA in 2025 reflects the critical role that research and innovation play in addressing climate change, environmental pollution and biodiversity decline.

"This new EPA funding will help develop innovative solutions to support Ireland’s response to these challenges."

The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.

The EPA has been funding research in Ireland since 1994 and is currently funding more than 200 research projects.

The EPA Research Call 2025 launched on April 3, 2025 and closed for applications on June 5, 2025. It consisted of 29 targeted topics focused on specific policy areas and outcomes will be announced in 2026

The annual EPA Research Call is a key element of the EPA 2030 Research Strategy which provides scientific support for environmental policy development, implementation and broader decision making across four thematic areas:

Addressing climate change evidence needs;
Facilitating a green and circular economy;
Delivering a healthy environment;
Protecting and restoring the natural environment.

The EPA Research Programme is designed to support the implementation of environmental policies in Ireland, such as the Climate Action Plan; National Climate Adaption Framework; Circular Economy Action Plans and Strategies; National Biodiversity Action Plan; National Radon Strategy; National Land Use Review; National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals; as well as a range of policy areas of interest for the EPA. 

The EPA Research Call 2024 addressed the following selected areas from the EPA’s Thematic Research Priorities 2024-2026:

Global risks to Ireland achieving its climate and environmental goals;
Social science, citizen science and behavioural science for climate action;
Understanding vulnerabilities, risks and adaptation measures at the local level;
Developing climate neutral pathways for Ireland;
Towards zero pollution;
Chemicals that are safe and sustainable by design;
Further understanding the health impacts of a changing environment;
Enhancing the assessment of materials, products and value chains in the circular economy in Ireland;
Integration of the circular economy and bioeconomy into climate and biodiversity measures;
Supporting and scaling up the just transition to the circular economy;
Integrating nature into decision-making;
Implementing effective protect and restore solutions;
Supporting the transition to sustainable land use planning and management.

A total of 130 eligible applications were received to the EPA Research Call 2024 with a total of 36 awards being issued in two tranches.

Based on information provided in the applications, in total almost 300 research staff will be supported through the 36 projects funded under the EPA Research Call 2024.

This includes the lead and co-investigators, research team members, students and support staff. Of the 298 people declared as being involved in the funded projects, 127 will be directly funded through the research grants.