We offer access to some of Ireland’s most advanced research and innovation infrastructure, as outlined below. In addition, we enable access to the METABUILDING Open Innovation Platform, providing innovators with technical support of experts and/or access to adequate services, test-beds and demo buildings across Europe, to advance their technologies.
Reserch Groups
Reserchers
Researchers in SFI Technology Centres
Alice Perry Engineering Building ‘living laboratory’ is a world-class teaching and research facility for engineering, where live data sets from over 4,000 sensors, measuring structural, environmental and energy performance, are provided for use in the development of full-scale research in building performance engineering.
Large Structures Testing Laboratory consists of a 375 m2state-of-the-art high-bay space, including capacity for structural testing of prototype building envelope components under static and fatigue loading, and racking test frame for timber wall panels.
Concrete Technology Laboratory includes a concrete material testing laboratory for the determination of physical and durability properties of materials (including concrete, mortars, cement, and aggregates), as well as simulated weathering and corrosion tests.
Timber Engineering Laboratory hosts a range of testing machines and two state-of-the-art climate-controlled chambers. A mechanical timber grading machine, an acoustic timber grader and two rainfall simulators are also available.
Additive Manufacturing and Material Testing laboratories include polymer (Material Extrusion, Vat Photopolymerisation and Powder Bed Fusion), metal (Powder Bed Fusion) and composite (Carbon, & glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite) additive manufacturing equipment, enabling material testing equipment for range of tests including tensile, compression, bending, fatigue, torsion, high temperature low cycle fatigue, micro-test stage.
National Water Research Facility enables full-scale trials for new technologies, operational practices and digital tools for the design, construction and operation of water and wastewater treatment facilities. The facility has hosted numerous research projects funded directly by industry, Enterprise Ireland, EU (e.g. INNOQUA) and the EPA. The site has been central to the development of 5 patents, a spin-out company and a number of commercial licences as well as enabling companies demonstrate and test new technology.
Various living laboratories on campus, including (i) Alice Perry Building database that continuously retrieves 1-minute data from >1800 sensors, (ii) Áras de Brún retrofitted building with wireless LORA-Wan sensed building and database, (iii) Human Biology and Lifecourse Science buildings with smart concrete structures that have embedded sensors relying real-time performance data and (iv) GEOFIT GSHP Thermal Energy Generation System
ICHEC (The Irish Centre for High-End Computing) at University of Galway is Ireland’s national centre for High-Performance Computing (HPC) providing e-infrastructure, services and expertise to academia, industry and the public sector.
Civil Engineering laboratories, which include a structural testing laboratory, a geotechnical laboratory, an environmental laboratory, a material testing laboratory, and a specimen fabrication workshop. These laboratories are equipped with physical and analytical testing equipment for testing of construction materials, soils and structures under static and dynamic loading, as well as structural monitoring instrumentation (e.g. servo-hydraulic testing equipment, soil mechanics testing equipment, TRSYS01 system, loggernet software, heat flux pads, thermocouples).
Trinity College Dublin houses one of the largest hubs of R&D infrastructure in Ireland on its campus, targeting strategic priorities that are staffed by dedicated research staff.
Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing employs experienced researchers and technical staff with expertise the areas of Numerical Modelling, Risk Analysis, Molecular Dynamics, Supercomputing/High Performance Computing, Visualisation, Systems administration and Linux Training.
Trinity College Dublin’s strategic E3 initiative in ‘Engineering, Environment, and Emerging Technologies’is an ambitious project to expand research and education activities across three of its Schools – Engineering, Computer Science and Natural Science – to tackle the challenge of sustainable technological development. With E3, Trinity College Dublin promotes a society where the interdependence between technological innovation and our natural capital is advanced by world-leading research, education and entrepreneurship. E3 will help position Ireland at the forefront of fields of research in STEM disciplines that are crucial for future economic competitiveness, including a modern and forward-looking construction sector. It will educate and train engineers and scientists for employment in existing and new technology sectors and equip them with the skills and attributes to lead in the creation of new businesses.
Heavy and Light Structures laboratories consisting of hydraulic actuators and data acquisition, electromechanical actuators and data acquisition.
Dynamical Systems and Risk Laboratory includes bespoke measurement chains connecting electrodynamic shaking facilities with multi-sensors analog channels, along with edge-computing facilities. Extensive benchmark datasets and laboratory experimental setups (e.g. for scaled testing of structures, pipelines etc.), along with in-house software and analyses methods (e.g. real-time monitoring, image processing) are also available.
Concrete and Material Testing Laboratory includes laser cutter and 3D printing facilities.
UCD Centre for Irish Towns is a trans-disciplinary research centre focusing on towns on the island of Ireland.
Energy Institute enables appliance testing, heat pump and gas boiler assessment, and provides access to the Energy Analytics Lab, thermal testing and energy efficiency monitoring facilities.
Pouladuff Laboratories enclosing an area of approximately 1,000 m2. The facility includes Materials and Concrete lab; Clean Materials lab; Lightweight Structures lab; Heavy Structures lab; Fluids lab; Architecture Projects lab; Energy labs; and Geotechnical lab.
Sustainable Futures Lab for collaboration, meetings and engaging with enterprise partners. This is equipped with seating for 30-40 people and includes state-of-the-art AV system, 4 x interactive LCD touch screens and conference calling facilities.
A ‘living lab’ investigating indoor air quality in the Iris Ashley Cummins Building provides access to data from thousands of industry based sensors across multiple building systems on a number of industry partner sites, including mobile energy, temperature, RH, CO2sensing devices, custom building sensors. The building enables state-of-the-art computational facilities and data analytics development stack in operation using various open source platforms.
MaREI Centre for Energy, Climate & Marine in the Beaufort Building offers world class testing infrastructure, state-of-the-art structural laboratories, novel prototypes and measurement equipment that allow the systematic identification and reduction of development risks through a structured Technology Readiness Level development cycle.
Environmental Research Institute brings together 400 researchers from 20 different scientific disciplines with expertise in the broad research platforms of climate action, environment, sustainable energy, sustainable materials and circular economy.
We bring together 23 multidisciplinary research groups across five institutions. This equates to over 300 researchers who are research active on topics related to construction/built environment. In addition, we have access to more than 1,200 researchers through the Science Foundation Ireland Centres – AMBER, CONNECT, INSIGHT, I-CRAG, I-FORM, and MaREI.
Please contact us directly at info@constructinnovate.ie if you need assistance with finding partners to support you in your research needs.
Construct Innovate
Alice Perry Engineering Building
University of Galway
Upper Newcastle
H91 HX31 Galway
Ireland
