A Trinity professor has been awarded €1.5 million in research funding as part of a Europe-wide study into ways to reduce energy consumption. The announcement came as part of the launch of the new Trinity Research in Social Sciences centre this evening.
The funding, which comes from the EU Commission’s Horizon 2020 fund, will be awarded to the Director of the new research centre, Dr Eleanor Denny, an associate professor in Trinity’s Department of Economics. Denny’s research will look at how to reduce people’s energy consumption, as well as making their energy use more efficient.
The new project, called Consumer Energy Efficient Decision Making (Conseed), will be led by the Trinity Research in Social Sciences centre, but will also involve collaborations with researchers from across Europe, including Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Greece.
The research will look at a range of areas, including the ways in which consumers make investment decisions regarding energy and how people can be encouraged to make more energy efficient choices with regard to choice of central heating, electrical appliances, vehicles and property.
In a press release, Denny said “the findings will refine Irish and EU energy policy with the potential to deliver significant environmental and cost savings”, describing it as having “real societal value”.
EU Horizon 2020 is an €80 billion fund that supports research that can benefit wider society by funding researchers in pioneering and developing market-friendly discoveries.
The launch of the new centre this evening was attended by Provost Patrick Prendergast, as well as the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, Robert Watt.
A number of talks took place this evening to mark the opening of the new centre. Speaking at the launch, held in the Arts Block this evening, the Head of Trinity’s Law School, Prof Oran Doyle, discussed constitutional law. Trevor Spratt, the Director of Trinity’s Children’s Research Centre, gave a talk titled “What can Children Tell us About the Future?”, while Head of the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Gail McElroy, discussed issues surrounding women, representation and elections.
