Mission Statement

Promotes collaboration between research institutions and industry; Assists in the development of companies' strategies in the marine and environmental sector through technical excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy Supports national economic development priorities like "Irelands Smart Economy"; Facilitates effective technology transfer between researchers and industrial partners. Provides a secure platform for career development in niche focussed technical specialisms Assists Ireland in securing a market leading position in next generation marine and environmental technologies.

Vision

"MESTECH will produce devices, information and new services that help decision-makers to promote the protection and sustainable use of our environment"

We are a multi-disciplinary research hub, whose goal is to provide Ireland with research solutions to complex environmental problems and develop innovative new ideas and products for emerging markets. We aim to partner with other world-class centres worldwide and to rapidly deliver these innovative solutions and services to the marine and environmental sector.

Beaufort and the NCSR

Prof Eugene Kennedy, Vice-President for Research, DCU, Minister Mary Coughlan, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Minister Eamon Ryan Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and Prof Dermot Diamond, Director of the National Centre for Sensor Research, DCU

The National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) at DCU was awarded €2.4 million as part of the Beaufort Marine Research Awards. The DCU consortium will concentrate their expertise on areas such as biosensors, analytical science, remote sensing, high speed separations, optical sensors, biochip platforms, video imaging, image processing and information extraction.These research teams, under the leadership of Prof. Dermot Diamond, will concentrate their efforts on developing new approaches for monitoring water quality based on microanalytical instruments that can be deployed in remote locations.

This Beaufort Marine Research Award is carried out under the Sea Change Strategy and the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation (2006-2013), with the support of the Marine Institute, funded under the Marine Research Sub-Programme of the National Development Plan 2007–2013.

The Beaufort Marine Research Awards

The Beaufort Marine Research Awards were announced in September 2007 as part of the Sea Change national strategy for marine research. These awards, amount to some €20 million, and will fund new marine research projects, carried out by over 140 researchers and students throughout Ireland. The Awards will create new teams of researchers focusing on issues such as the sustainable energy, functional foods, transport, technology and environmental monitoring

Historical Perspective

The Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub (MESTECH) was established at the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR), Dublin City University in September 2010. Research in MESTECH grew from a strong history of environmental sensing research at the National Centre of Sensor Research which underpinned several strategic initiatives such as the Marine Institute funded SmartCoast project in 2005, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded DEPLOY project in 2007 and Marine Institute Beaufort Marine Research awards in 2007. Current research is supported through the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) CSET 'CLARITY', QUESTOR funded projects, as well as EPA, Marine Institute and other non-exchequer funded research. In 2010 DCU was awarded funding by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), for SmartBay, the national test and demonstration site at Galway Bay in collaboration with National University of Ireland, Maynooth, National University of Ireland, Galway, University College Dublin, the Marine Institute and industry partners. Funding in DCU in the area of Environment and Marine, for the period 2006-2010 was in the region of € 8.5 m.

The official launch of the research hub took place on March 29th 2011. The team brings together world-class researchers in DCU covering areas such as biosensors, analytical science, engineering, computing, visual sensing and image processing and focuses their combined expertise on issues of importance to the monitoring of our environment. Drivers of our research are current national policy and international objectives (SSTI, Sea Change, Irelands Smart Economy, STRIVE, Europe 2020 etc.) DCU and the NCSR offer expertise and state of the art facilities, which enables us to work closely with industry partners to solve real monitoring problems, develop new products, and realise new market opportunities related to marine and environmental sensing technology.