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Due to the great success of last year’s pilot phase, funding is now available to continue this valuable Irish Geoscience Graduate Programme initiative, to further Geoscience research excellence. The heads of geoscience schools / departments at seven universities and one research institute came together in training postgraduate students in the geosciences. The programme’s visionary and unique objective has established a robust holistic broad based training programme for postgraduate students, wherever they are registered for their fourth level degrees (primarily PhD) on the island of Ireland. The institutions included are:

  • Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. School of Cosmic Physics, Geophysics Section. (DIAS)
  • National University of Ireland, Galway. Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences. (NUIG)
  • Trinity College, Dublin. Department of Geology. (TCD)
  • University College, Cork. Department of Geology. (UCC)
  • University College, Dublin. School of Geological Sciences. (UCD)
  • University of Ulster, Coleraine. School of Environmental Sciences, Geophysics Research Group. (UU)
  • National University of Ireland, Maynooth. School of Geography - Irish Sediment Core Research Facilities. (ISCORF)

The Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies would be interested in broadening that base further and invites your Institute to join us by sending your qualified PhD students to attend these courses, or to offer alternative courses as part of the ongoing programme. Our modules are also available to working professional geoscientists.

At present, approximately fifty permanent academic staff at the six institutions train approximately sixty post-graduate students in the fields of research of the students' respective supervisors. This Irish Geoscience Graduate Programme (IGGP) plans to at least double, if not treble, that number within a period of five to seven years, and to broaden the scope of the research while maintaining standards of research excellence. With the introduction of a system of modular courses during the four year PhD programme, students will be better prepared for their research with skill sets capable of flexibly addressing Ireland's geoscience needs into the future. These courses will represent a high quality response to the challenge of the Bologna Process which requires that all Doctoral programmes contain both generic and subject specific competence training. Students in the programme will have access to the research expertisé in any of the partner institutions. Other institutions may join once the programme is operating.

In addition to the approximately fifty permanent academic staff there are a comparable number of research staff, including emeritus staff. The total number of geoscience academics on the island of Ireland is on a par with any one of the larger UK (5 or 5* rated) university departments. IGGP is thus a programme of assured quality.

All courses are available free of charge to any students registered at an Irish or Northern Irish Third or Fourth Level Academic Institution, and to Irish-based academics (subject to space availability). All courses are also available to non-Irish students or to industry as Professional Development for a fee. See Fees and Support page.

Funding continues to be provided by the Geological Survey of Ireland through an NDP-supported Griffith Award to Prof. Alan G. Jones at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

For information, please visit the IGGP website and contact Caroline Moloney at moloneca -at- cp.dias.ie

News

It is with deep sadness that the IGGP Co-ordinator, Professor Ben Kennedy, passed away on 24th July, 2013. Ben's role in establishing the IGGP was crucial, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him. Irish geoscience owes Ben a huge debt of gratitude.

 

 

 

Sponsored by an NDP - supported Griffith Award