UCD is one of Europe's leading research-intensive universities; an environment where undergraduate education, Master's and Ph.D. training, research, innovation, and community engagement form a dynamic spectrum of activity. As Ireland's largest university, with its great strength and diversity of disciplines, UCD embraces its role to contribute to the flourishing of Ireland and the world through the study of people, society, business, economy, culture, languages, and the creative arts, as well as through research and innovation.
UCD Environmental Policy
UCD Environmental Policy has an international reputation as a center of excellence for research and teaching in a multidisciplinary school ranked in the QS top 150. UCD Environmental Policy comprises a research-intensive faculty group that has been central to national and international debates and policy action. Our faculty have held senior government advisory roles and our graduates are distinguished policy advisers in the public and private sectors across the globe.
The goal of the Environmental Policy Group is to contribute to a fair and sustainable world through environmental policy design, using evidence from research and engagement, in partnership with other academic groups, non-academic institutions, policymakers, and businesses. The core values of UCD Environmental Policy are excellence in both research and education, a willingness to engage in university and professional life, and a commitment to continual improvement in its teaching, research, and engagement with society.
Research Focus and Research LABS
The UCD Environmental Policy research agenda is wide-ranging, addressing key thematic areas of direct relevance to environmental policy and development including:
- Climate Change Economics and Policy
- Environmental Behavioural Science
- Cost-Benefit Analysis and Environmental Valuation
- Policy Instruments, Taxation, and Emissions Trading
- Transportation, Energy, and Smart Cities
- Economic Measures of Sustainability
- Quality of Life
- Well-being and the Environment
- Renewable Energy
- Risk Perception and Hazard Management
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Sustainable Urbanization in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- Corporate Sustainability and ESG
UCD Environmental Policy organizes its research into three main labs: the Well-Being Lab focusing on research linking the environment to our quality of life; the Environmental Economics Lab conducting leading-edge research to inform the design of policies that change behavior and incentivize people to protect the environment; and the Environmental Risk Lab conducting research spanning on risk perceptions, biases and motivations that inform behaviors, and the design of public policy, and policy instruments, to promote preferential outcomes and reduce negative externalities.
UCD Environmental Policy Group currently leads a project focusing on mitigating and preventing the negative impacts of floods and drought and unsustainable urban development in Sub-Saharan Africa, and on reversing the degradation of water, land resources, and ecosystems, combining the ecohydrology and adaptive social protection approaches (WECOAdapt).
The team
UCD Environmental Policy team includes welfare and behavioral economists, engineers, environmental scientists, and urban planners, working at the interface between environmental and development issues, with a strong inter and transdisciplinary focus.
Education
The mission of UCD Environmental Policy is to provide teaching programs that address some of the most pressing challenges facing societies and policy-makers across the globe, including sustainable development; climate change; energy and transport; urbanization and land use; natural resource management. Our undergraduate programs are student-focused and delivered by research-active Faculty, with the program content informed by the latest research and by their own policy experience. They include the BSc in City Planning & Environmental Policy integrating subjects that deepen and broaden understanding of environmental, social, and economic issues, and set these in a practical policy context; the MSc in Environmental Policy equips students with essential knowledge about environmental sustainability, and policy and governance frameworks for environmental action, while also developing key professional tools to enable graduates to apply policy-oriented skills creatively in their future careers; and the Environmental Policy Ph.D. program, a structured degree based on original research preparing students for a career in policy, academia as well as many other domains.
Organization for collaboration
The EfD partner center is based at UCD Environmental Policy. Dr Eoin O’Neill is the Director of the UCD Environmental Policy-EfD Center and Dr Liana Ricci is the co-Director of the center and the main contact person. The center will have a board of experienced academics. Administrative and financial issues will be handled by Dr Louise Dunne.
UCD researchers who are active in the EfD network:
Eoin O’Neill
Liana Ricci
Louise Dunne
See the film from the webinar where UCD staff introduced themself and their research to the EfD network!