WIT News

WIT and Teagasc co-host Ireland’s largest annual environmental conference Posted: Mon, February 2, 2009

Waterford Institute of Technology has teamed up with Teagasc, the Irish agriculture and food development authority, to co-host the 19th Irish Environmental Researchers’ Colloquium,  ENVIRON 2009, at the Institute’s Cork Road campus from February 18-20.

ENVIRON 2009 is Ireland’s largest annual environmental conference and promotes greater links between researchers, academics and those working in industry. Over 350 delegates are expected to attend.

The national conference for environmental scientists was held in Dundalk last year and Waterford was selected to host this year’s event, according to conference co-ordinator, Dr Laura Kirwan, a post-doctoral researcher with WIT who works to forge stronger links between the Institute and Teagasc.

“Among the delegates will be key figures from third level institutes and industry. We’ve changed the colloquium format this year and have invited experts to lead the different themes, as well as a keynote address and a plenary discussion session.

“We hope to have a very informative exchange of views and ideas and promote greater exchanges of information between scientists and educators in particular. Quite an amount of critical research is underway but not all policy makers are aware of the extent or the value of the work.

“ENVIRON 2009 will also feature a jobs fair for the first time. This will allow students see the job opportunities available in the sector as well as the postgraduate and post-doctoral opportunities,” Dr Kirwan added.

Conference delegates can look forward to discussion and debate on topical areas including climate change; invasive alien species; sustainable management of air, water and soil; ecology and biodiversity as well as environmental technologies; eco innovation and waste and resource management.

• ENVIRON 2009 registration is still open at http://www.esaiweb.org/esai_environ2009.php.