JRI and JRI Seminars

The EU-CONEXUS Joint Research Institutes Seminars  offers the opportunity for researchers across the alliance to exchange their research ideas and enter into dialogue about common research objectives in the area of Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability (SmUCS).

SmUCS means understanding and addressing societal challenges that are experienced by communities from urban and semi-urbanised coastal regions (rivers, seas, and oceans). Coastal environments are interfaces between inland areas and marine offshore parts where social and economic activities interact with highly valuable and unique coastal ecosystems.

The functioning and evolution of urban coastal societies and environments in the context of climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressure are major challenges that are addressed in the framework of SmUCS.

Life Sciences and Biotechnology Institute

Promote and coordinate both basic and applied joint research activities in Life, Health and Agricultural Sciences, including Aquaculture, Biotechnology, Cell Technology, Veterinary Sciences, Marine Sciences, Medicine, Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy, Biomedical and Clinical Research, Nutrition Sciences, Pharmacy, Chemistry.

SETU JRI Representatives:

Dr Adriana Cunha Neves
Dr Nabla Kennedy
Dr Mike Kinsella

Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity Institute

ESBI aims to contribute to the challenges of environmental transition, namely adapting to global changes (climatic, environmental or anthropogenic) in terms of risks but also of opportunities thanks to a better knowledge of ecosystem services. Its main research objective will be to analyse the interactions between human, society, and the environment in the coastal zones, in terms of quality of life, migratory flows but also experiences, uses and practices of the coastal territory up to questions of governance, public policy and territorial planning.

SETU JRI Representatives:

Dr Denise O’Meara
Dr Thomae Kahouli-Durate
Dr David O’Neill
Dr John Cleary

Coastal Engineering Institute

The ambition of the CEI is to improve energy and environmental efficiency, including the user, structure and dimensions of resilience and sustainability in a multi‐scale scale: Materials / Building / District / City, in response to the LUDI orientation: L: Aggressive Environments, U: Built, D: Materials, I: Digital in Casting, Modelling and Materials. The Institute will work on improving the quality of indoor environments: indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustic, light; optimisation of urban planning (urban planning outside architecture, limit the ICU, preserve the quality of the outside air, revegetation), and the sustainability of materials and structures and the eco‐efficiency of the building: improve the service life, develop eco‐materials, lighten structures, improve their performance (particularly energy), limit the risks (of transport, in hostile environments).

SETU JRI Representatives:

Dr Sinead O’Halloran
Dr Greg Doyle
Dr Enda Dunican
Dr Alan Davy

Social, Culture and Human Sciences Institute

This Institute is part of the Human and Social Sciences focusing on the place of man and society in coastal areas. It focuses more specifically on the ways of inhabiting the coast and to carry out various activities (eg. tourism), the long-time that characterises the historical approach of these particular places, the numerous cultural stakes that result, the international and multicultural aspects of these transitional spaces, the issues of territorial governance and the norms and rules that regulate man‐made coastal areas.

SETU JRI Representatives:

Dr Susan Flynn
Dr Janette Davies
Dr Niamh O’Brien
Dr Allison Kenneally

EU-CONEXUS Joint Research Challenge Workshops 2025

About

The EU-CONEXUS Joint Research Challenge Workshops are designed to build research capacity for impact across our alliance by helping researchers connect with each other, explore shared challenges, and co-develop early-stage ideas that respond to European and global sustainability priorities. The combination of examples and hands-on online exercises will introduce you to all aspects that you need to know from identifying the right call for your project idea

Each session is grounded in one of our six EU-CONEXUS Research Challenges and offers a structured, supported environment to collaborate across disciplines, institutions, and regions. Together, we explore how to respond to complex challenges through research that delivers long-term outcomes for communities, ecosystems, and European policy.

Smart Coastal Infrastructure for Disaster Mitigation
Sustainable Coastal Waste Management
Sustainable Disease Management
Ensuring Healthy Food and Soil
Protecting Oceans, Seas and Waters
Adaption and Mitigation of Global Climate Change in Coastal Environments

The team will support researchers with a pre workshop ‘information pack’ that includes practical information sheets on specific Horizon Europe call topics, and our online workshops will guide the development of an early-stage concept note aligned with these.

Workshops

These workshops help participants:

Learn how to align research with Horizon Europe priorities and funding streams
Build new interdisciplinary collaborations across the alliance
Analyze Horizon Europe call topics thanks to methodological guidance
Align research ideas with upcoming Horizon Europe 2025–2026 priorities
Co-develop early-stage concept notes and lay the groundwork for proposal development
Strengthen institutional and personal capacity to deliver high-impact research