UL Sustainability Challenge Finalists Announced!

Earlier this year, the University of Limerick launched the UL Sustainability Challenge to encourage our students to develop research projects to tackle the Climate Crisis. The competition was open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and offered up to €10,000 in funding to develop working pilot projects to show how their innovative ideas could be scaled up to make an impact on the biggest challenge of our time.

Having been overwhelmed with inventive entries, UL have announced the winners of the inaugural Sustainability Challenge and Sustainable Shores has been selected as a finalist!

My name is Éabha Hughes and as of writing this, I am a PhD applicant in the Department of Education and Health Sciences. I developed the Sustainable Shores: Ireland's Life Below Water project to tackle UN Sustainability Development Goal 14: ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’.

Éabha Hughes, Sustainable Shores project lead and finalist in the UL Sustainability Challenge

The project focuses on education for local communities to help them understand how they can reduce and prevent damage to marine and aquatic ecosystems – and how they might be sustainably restored to their natural state. I hope to use the opportunity and funding to produce an educational book, a website with downloadable resources, and workshops for use at University of Limerick and secondary schools nationwide to build awareness, promote citizen science, and get people engaged in climate action.

"This project not only supports the education of the next generation of environmental champions but it also has the potential to bring the wonder of life below Irish shores to a global audience."

Professor Norelee Kennedy, Vice President of Research at University of Limerick said: “The biodiversity at our doorstep is brought to life with Éabha’s research into the Ireland’s shores, in particular the river Shannon. This project not only supports the education of the next generation of environmental champions but it also has the potential to bring the wonder of life below Irish shores to a global audience.”

It’s a huge honour to have my project chosen and funded, I’m absolutely thrilled! One of my guiding principles when it comes to research of any kind is that people don’t care about what they don’t know, and I truly believe that educating people about the differing aspects of the climate crisis is our best bet at mitigating its effects.

UL Sustainability Challenge winners pictured with UL President Professor Kerstin Mey

The climate crisis and biodiversity loss we’re experiencing are two sides of the same coin that Humans have forged through years of living unsustainably and isolated from nature. Very few people know about the incredible biodiversity along Ireland’s shorelines, even less so about our freshwater habitats.

This is an opportunity to show people how beautiful our life below water is, and why it’s crucial for us to protect, conserve and restore it.

And it’s not just the ocean or rivers; when was the last time you saw a hairy molly caterpillar in the garden?

Marine and aquatic life has a very special place in my heart; when I can, I spend as much time as possible either in or near water. As the climate crisis has accelerated, I’ve seen some of my favourite critters disappearing entirely from rock pools and beaches where ten years ago, you couldn’t take a step without seeing them. And it’s not just the ocean or rivers; when was the last time you saw a hairy molly caterpillar in the garden? When you really start to look, it’s hard to ignore the scale of the biodiversity loss we’re facing.

Read more in the University Of Limerick's Official Press Release here! https://www.ul.ie/50/ul-sustainability-challenge-sustainable-shores