ATU research on the SDGs 2025

ATU's research impact on SDGs

How we are answering the call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all.

A research compilation series that highlights how ATU researchers are contributing towards the 17 SDGsContents

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Sustainability for the Future

ATU's Research Impact on SDG Goals

One of the ATU's strategic objectives for 2024-28 is to ‘Conduct Impactful Sustainability Research, under the Guiding Light Sustainability for the Future.

This Research Series has been compiled to showcase some of the amazing work carried out by ATU researchers.

Featured publications have been tagged as being linked to the one of the 17 SDGs by Elsevier (Scopus).

Each week, a small number of SDGs will be highlighted.

Week 1 (Oct 27th) starts with SDGs 1, 2 and 3. Click forward to read the first publication about SDG 1: No Poverty!

Title: Public perceptions of climate risks, vulnerability, and adaptation strategies: Fuzzy cognitive mapping in Irish and Spanish living labs

Authors & Affiliations: Ananya Tiwari (ATU), Luís Campos, Sudha-Rani Nalakurthi, Salem Gharbia (ATU)

Low-income earners feel the brunt of climate change, even in wealthy countries like Ireland and Spain

Background: Europe is heating up fast, but many assume its wealth protects people from climate harm. Little is known about the adaptive capacities of different socio-economic groups: how well different individuals or communities cope with and respond to climate hazards.

What they did: Interviewed over 150 people in Co.Sligo (Ireland) and the Basque Country (Spain), exploring how people perceive risk, their ability to adapt, and the role of local policies. They used a method called fuzzy cognitive mapping to understand how climate hazards like floods, heatwaves, and erosion affect daily life, beliefs, and behaviour.

What they found out: Vulnerable groups, especially women, immigrants, and low-income earners, feel the brunt of climate change. Irish respondents felt more vulnerable to climate hazards, as a great number reported that their day-to-day lives are affected, such as damage to homes, roads and recreational areas.

SDG Impact: Vulnerable groups face greater risks and fewer resources to cope, threatening their livelihoods, health, and housing. The study highlights the need for equitable, locally tailored climate strategies.

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Title: Consumer Knowledge and Willingness Pertaining to the Adoption of a Sustainable Diet: A Scoping Review

Authors & Affiliations: Connor Dupuits, Elaine Mooney, Amanda McCloat (Atlantic Technological University)

Consumers care more about cost, taste & convenience than environmental impact when choosing food

Background: Globally, in 2017 20% of deaths were associated with a poor diet. Moving toward sustainable diets could help reduce these harms. A sustainable diet promotes all aspects of a person's health and well-being, has low impact on the environment, and is affordable and accessible.

What the researchers did: Reviewed 45 papers about this topic to map out what is known about people's knowledge of and willingness to adopt a sustainable diet.

What they found out: Many people misunderstand what is a sustainable diet, and there is generally low willingness to adopt one. Reasons for this include lack of knowledge about sustainable diets, attachment to meat, perceived costs, and insufficient cooking skills. They also noted that little is known about Irish consumer's knowledge, as none of the studies were done in Ireland (at the time of literature search, to the author's best knowledge).

SDG Impact: Understanding and addressing barriers to adopting sustainable diets can support more equitable, nutritious, and environmentally friendly food systems

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Title: The mediating role of impulsivity on suicidal behaviour among higher education students with depression and substance abuse disorders

Authors & affiliations: McHugh (UU), McLafferty (ATU), Brown (ATU), Ward (UU), Walsh (Linköping University), Bjourson (UU), McBride (ATU), Brady (Tyrone & Fermanagh Hospital), O'Neill (UU) and Murray (UU).

Impulsivity partially explains the link between substance use and suicidal behaviour in college students

Background: People with alcohol or drug dependence often have higher impulsivity, which has been linked to future alcohol abuse and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours—especially among those who are also depressed.

What the researchers did: Surveyed 1,829 first-year college students in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to explore how impulsivity influences the connection between depression, substance abuse, and suicidal behaviour.

What they found out: Impulsivity partially explained the link between depression or substance abuse and suicidal thoughts or actions; it was especially associated with suicidal ideation, attempts, and self-harm, but not with planning suicide. Males and those with more severe depression or substance abuse had higher levels of impulsivity.

SDG impact: Targeting impulsivity in mental health screenings could help identify at-risk students earlier and improve suicide prevention efforts, supporting their health and wellbeing.

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Authors & Affiliations: Mary Nolan (ATU, UCD), Lizbeth Goodamn (UCD), Konrad Mulrennan (ATU), Mary Carden (ATU, UCD), David Mulligan (ATU), Eva Murphy (ATU, UCD)

Title: Humanising Pedagogies in Transdisciplinary Education: Promoting Critical Thinking, Empathy, and Ethical Awareness in Real-World Problem-Solving

Engineering with heart to upskill for complex societal challenges

Background: Engineering education has traditionally prioritised technical skills and objective problem-solving. These approaches often leave students underprepared to engage with the relational, ethical, and societal dimensions of real-world challenges.

What the researchers did: Conducted a qualitative investigation of a design-thinking event called Innovation Days (i-Days), where students from diverse fields worked collaboratively to address health literacy and access to clean water in Entebbe, Uganda. Student reflections were captured using Rolfe et al.’s “What? So What? Now What?” model and thematically analysed through the lens of Tronto’s Ethics of Care, including attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness, and caring.

What they found out: Students developed skills in communication, critical thinking, and collaboration. However, they also encountered power dynamics - where limited engagement hindered meaningful collaboration. These challenges highlighted a tendency to prioritise technical solutions over relational approaches and pointed to the need for stronger support structures and deeper contextual awareness.

SDG impact: Embedding care ethics and reflective practice in transdisciplinary education can foster more inclusive, collaborative, and ethically grounded responses to complex societal challenges.

Title: Using the coaches voice to improve the representation and experience of females in coaching: a Gaelic games perspective

Authors & Affiliations: T Haighey, A Graffin, P Donnelly, B McGrane, P McGourty (ATU) et al.

Breaking barriers: Why supporting women coaches is key to level the playing field in Gaelic games

Background: Female coaches are rare in sports worldwide, including in Ireland’s Gaelic games, where only about 19% of coaches are women. This underrepresentation is linked to feelings of being undervalued, lack of confidence, gender bias, and unsupportive environments.

What the researchers did: Held online group discussions with 38 female Gaelic games coaches from different roles and activity levels to explore their experiences, focusing on how structural and cultural factors affect them.

What they found out: Identified four main areas influencing female coaches’ experiences: personal challenges, coaching environments, organisational support, and wider societal attitudes. These factors create many barriers that limit women’s involvement and progression in coaching.

SDG impact: The study highlights the need to create fair, supportive, and flexible coaching cultures that empower women, contributing directly to gender equality and inclusion in sports leadership

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Article: Urban wastewater treatment by ozonation: Disinfection by-products and toxicity assessment

Authors & Affiliations: K.J. Castañeda-Retavizca, K. O’Dowd (ATU), E. Jambrina-Hernández, S. Nahim-Granados, P. Plaza-Bolaños, S. Malato, M.I. Polo-López, S.C. Pillai (ATU), I. Oller

Low doses of ozone can effectively disinfect urban waste water for reuse without leaving toxic traces

Background: The world is running short of clean drinking water. Studies have predicted that 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by 2025. We need alternative water resources - such as treated urban waste water. One method of cleaning urban waste water is ozonation - where water is injected with ozone, a powerful oxidant.

What the researchers did: Tested different amounts of ozone on treated urban wastewater to see how well it inactivated pollutants and harmful bacteria, and whether it created any toxic byproducts in the process.

What they found out: Ozone successfully removed up to 80% of tiny pollutants and killed bacteria like E. coli. The lowest dosage that was tested was the most optimal - it successfully disinfected the water whilst avoiding toxicity related to byproducts.

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SDG impact: This method shows promise for making waste water cleaner and safer to reuse, helping to increase the number of water resources available, and contributing to address global clean water shortages.

Article: A review of frequency-control techniques for wind power stations to enable higher penetration of renewables onto the Irish power system

Authors & Affiliations: James Boyle (Atlantic Technological University) and Timothy Littler (Queen's University Belfast).

We need more realistic ways to stabilise the electricity grid for renewable sources like wind

Background: Renewable energy sources like wind turbines do not operate at the national grid frequency, and can make the grid less stable. This is known as non-synchronous energy production. Synthetic inertia is a grid support service that helps to stabilise the electricity grid. Currently, non-synchronous renewable power stations are not required to provide synthetic inertia - but this will need to change as Ireland increases its levels of generated renewable energy.

What the researchers did: Reviewed existing research to understand how well proposed synthetic inertia solutions could work with the current systems used to control wind power in Ireland.

What they found out: Some of the synthetic inertia schemes proposed in literature cannot be implemented safely or optimally in real-world contexts, which prevents them from being considered for adoption by wind turbine manufacturers

SDG impact: Increasing our understanding of how to stabilise the energy grid through technologies such as synthetic inertia will help Ireland and Northern Ireland reach their renewable energy goals.

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Article: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach to Battery Management in Dairy Farming via Proximal Policy Optimization

Authors & Affiliations: Nawazish Ali (University of Galway), Rachael Shaw (Atlantic Technological University), and Karl Mason (University of Galway)

Using Artificial Intelligence can help dairy farmers reduce electricity needs by 13%

Background: Dairy farms use up a large amount of electricity - this is likely to increase along with the demand for milk production. Therefore, dairy farms would benefit from enhancing electricity efficiency through the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) controlled renewable energy systems.

What the researchers did: Tested a deep reinforcement learning algorithm (Proximal Policy Optimisation) on real farm data from Finland to find out how well it manages the use of dairy farm batteries and how much electricity is purchased from the grid.

What they found out: The PPO algorithm managed the batteries effectively. It reduced electricity purchased from the grid by 13% compared to no battery, 2.6% compared to rule-based algorithms, and 1.6% compared to traditional Q-learning.

SDG impact: Harnessing the power of smart algorithms can play a key role in making dairy farming more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.

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The compilation of this series, ATU’s Research Impact on the SDGs, was supported by RISE@ATU (TU RISE). TU RISE is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the ERDF Northern and Western Regional Programme 2021-27