CLIMATUDE
CLIMATUDE explores how Irish people think and feel about climate change. Its findings will help support climate justice and a just transition in climate action.
Dr Niall Dunphy
Niall P. Dunphy PhD, MSc(Gov), BSc, MIEnvSc is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Engineering and Architecture and Sustainability Institute at University College Cork, Ireland.
He leads the Cleaner Production Promotion Unit, a multidisciplinary research group working at the intersection of the social sciences with science and engineering. The group conducts engaged research focused on the theme of society, sustainability and energy.
Niall serves as a member of both the Executive Management Committee of UCC Sustainability Institute, and the Executive Management Team of UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures.
His expertise lies in the design and realisation of multi- and inter-disciplinary research focused on understanding people’s attitudes and perceptions relevant to sustainability, and on exploring how their behaviour and practices are reflected in their interaction with technology deployments.
Niall has been principal investigator of more than 30 multidisciplinary research projects, with funding awards of over €11.5m.
Dr Breffní Lennon
Dr Breffní Lennon is a Research Fellow of the School of Engineering & Architecture, and a senior researcher with the CPPU Group based in the Sustainability Institute at University College Cork, Ireland.
Working at the intersection of human geography, science and technology studies, political ecology, and sustainability science, his research examines the geographies of sustainability transitions with a particular focus on the transformation of energy systems in response to wider planetary environmental challenges, e.g., the climate and biodiversity crises. He is also interested in how knowledge practices co-produce the possibilities, politics, and uneven geographies of decarbonisation while reconfiguring relationships between society, nature, and technology.
In 2025, he led the UCC COP30 delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025.
He is a principal investigator and co-investigator on numerous high impact national and internationally funded research projects, securing research income totalling €2,180,743.
Dr Rachel Gough
Dr Rachel Gough is a postdoctoral researcher based in the CPPU group at the Sustainability Institute, University College Cork, where she works on the EPA-funded CLIMATUDE project. She also lectures in UCC’s Department of Film and Screen Media. Her research explores ecological representation, hauntology and postcolonial theory.
She is co-founder of Haunted Futures, an interdisciplinary research network that hosts annual conferences on hauntology, a member of the Estudios Irlandeses editorial board and Public Relations Officer for Women in Research Ireland.
Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals and anthologies in Ireland and internationally. Her fiction has also been broadcast as part of BBC 4’s Short Works programme.
She has also received the Lord Puttnam Scholarship, the CACSSS Creative Connections Project award, funding from UCC’s Collective Social Futures Fund, the Irish Writer’s Centre Notre Dame Kylemore Residency, the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award, the NUI Grant Scheme for Early Career Academics and mentorship with acclaimed writer Patrick Holloway through the Munster Literature Centre.
Dr Elizabeth Creed
Elizabeth Creed is a Postdoctoral Researcher based in the Cleaner Production Promotion Unit, within the Sustainability Institute, at University College Cork, working on two projects - JustCities Hub and CLIMATUDE - both funded by Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency.
Liz was awarded her doctorate from the Department of Sociology and Criminology (UCC) in 2025. Her doctoral research explored the Irish energy transition in context of the community owned renewable energy (CORE) sector.
Prior to this Liz worked in several sectors including, as a research scientist in the pharmaceutical sector and as a project manager on a community health initiative to bring person focused care to those living with dementia. which took a community-based collaborative approach. She has been involved with a volunteer climate action group where she lives for over twenty years.
