Minister Harris announces funding for two new climate action projects

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, today announced two innovative climate action projects have been awarded €7.6 million in funding under the Human Capital Initiative (HCI).

Speaking today, Minister Harris said:

The first project will pilot radical revision in architectural education to prioritise the UN Sustainable Development Goals and targets relating to climate action and sustainable housing. The project in close partnership with industry will engender the knowledge and skills necessary to significantly reduce the carbon impact of construction on the environment and demonstrate the societal value of inclusive, safe, and resilient design. Led by TU Dublin, the project will collaborate with six national schools of architecture to deliver national innovation in architectural education.

Munster Technological University have been awarded funding to establish Ireland's Knowledge Centre for Carbon and Climate. The project team will build a national platform for co-development and co-delivery of knowledge and skills to enable innovative and systemic adaptation of enterprise and society to a decarbonized economy and sustainable living.

The Item was unpublished or removed, which was announced by the Government in Budget 2019, is an initiative which provides a €300m investment of National Training Fund monies to enable our higher education system to respond more rapidly to the changes and challenges we face. These two projects will bring the total number of projects funded under the HCI pillar 3 to 24.

In December 2021, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, requested the HEA to engage with two projects on the reserve funding list of the Human Capital Initiative Pillar 3: Innovation and Agility, 2020 Call for Proposals. The two proposals are substantially relevant to commitments under the Climate Action Plan.

For the 2020 call, 62 proposals from 24 higher education providers were submitted for funding. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has allocated €196.4m in funding to support this initiative for a 5-year period, from 2020.

All applications were independently evaluated by a panel of national and international experts. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science awarded funding based on the panel’s recommendations. 22 projects were previously awarded funding under the HCI.

The independent assessment panel also recommended a reserve list of proposals for consideration if further funding became available. The process allowed the minister approve projects to be funded from this reserve list.

The following reserve list proposals are now being awarded funding:

Ireland's Knowledge Centre for Carbon and Climate - MTU

The objective of this proposal is to build a national platform for co-development and co-delivery of knowledge and skills to enable innovative and systemic adaptation of enterprise and society to a decarbonized economy and sustainable living.

The consortium involves leading Irish and European higher education institutions (HEIs), companies, enterprise clusters, local government, civic and social innovators. It will adapt best practices developed by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and Sustainable Innovations.

The assembled team will take a radical approach deploying a quintuple helix model of innovation to education, integrating state of the art pedagogies and learning pathways. Approaches include stackable micro-courses, summer schools, dual and collaborative learning via deep learning demonstrations, micro-credentials and digitization.

The platform that will emerge will deliver a step-change in agility with which Ireland’s higher education system can respond to the knowledge, skills and talent needs of society. It will present innovative scalable solutions for a teaching and learning experience that is flexible and personalized. It will promote professional development of students, community stakeholders, and those in the workplace to foster the transition to a carbon neutral society.

Resilient Design Curricula for 21st Century Professionals - TU Dublin

This project will pilot radical revision in architectural education to prioritise two key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030, that of Climate Action (13.3) and Sustainable Housing (SDG 11.1).

The project will adopt agile models of co-operation, collaboration, and co-learning with profession and industry to engender the knowledge and skills necessary to reduce significantly the carbon impact of construction on the environment and demonstrate the societal value of inclusive, safe, and resilient design.

The project will act as a catalyst to trigger an accelerated transformation process transferable to the wider sector of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC), creating a working template for replication across all HEIs to deliver entrepreneurial globally responsible citizens.

Six schools of architecture in the Republic of Ireland have partnered on this proposal. There are seven institutional partners in total (UCC and MTU jointly run the Cork Centre for Architectural Education). There are 45 partners in total that comprise the project team. Each HEI partner will work with a select group of enterprise partners representing industry professionals, regional local authorities, commercial developers, and public agencies.