As the climate crisis increases extreme weather in Ireland, UCD aims to use the latest AI tech to better predict what’s to come.
University College Dublin (UCD) and Met Éireann will today (19 September) launch a new research centre to develop AI tools for improved weather forecasting, as the climate crisis accelerates the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in Ireland.
The Aimsir (AI for Meteorological Services, Innovation and Research) Centre was established with a €5m investment from Ireland’s national meteorological service, Met Éireann.
“Met Éireann’s mission to protect life and property, and to promote societal wellbeing, is grounded in world-class science and innovation,” said Eoin Moran, Met Éireann director and a VP at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The aim of the new centre is to bring together more than 60 UCD researchers from maths, statistics, computer science, physics, engineering and climatology to develop AI-driven forecasting tools to improve the accuracy and timeliness of weather forecasting services.
Aimsir researchers will have access to more than a hundred years of historical meteorological data and will be able to analyse this alongside current satellite imagery and sensor data to detect weather and climate trends using advanced AI models.
The Aimsir centre will be led by the first Met Éireann professor of data science for climate and weather, Prof Andrew Parnell, at UCD’s School of Mathematics and Statistics, with Dr Conor Sweeney as deputy director, and supported by the UCD Earth Institute.
Parnell’s research focuses on machine learning and statistical modelling applied to various climate and ecological fields.
“This new research centre will provide incredible opportunities for our students to develop the next generation of advanced weather forecasting models which will be vital for our society as we move into an unprecedented period of climatic change,” Parnell said.
A recent EPA report about climate risks noted that Ireland is projected to experience wetter winters with more intense rainfall, and hotter summers with more heatwaves and droughts, along with rising sea levels and more ocean acidification. It identified flooding, extreme winds and coastal erosion as among significant climate risks Ireland needs to prepare for.
Earlier this week, Parnell shared a call for applications for six fully funded PhD scholarships in AI for weather forecasting and climate change to start in January 2026. The projects include an investigation into links between viral infections and extreme weather in Ireland, a project to advance offshore weather forecasting using AI and physics-based models, and an analysis of the effects of weather on psychiatric hospital admissions in Ireland.
“If you want to shape the future of climate resilience and weather forecasting with AI, we want to hear from you,” Parnell wrote in the post.
To “meet rising global demand for climate resilience expertise”, the plan is for the centre to train 20 PhD students in its first few years and to develop a new MSc in AI for meteorology and climate change.
The team said that Aimsir will benefit from Met Éireann’s expertise in weather and flood forecasting and climate science, as well as from its close relationships with European and international organisations, including EUMETSAT, ECMWF and the European Space Agency.
“As our climate changes and extreme weather events become more frequent, advances in weather prediction are crucial for the protection of people and infrastructure in Ireland,” said UCD president, Prof Orla Feely.
This collaboration will “ensure that Ireland is at the forefront of this increasingly important area of scientific understanding”, she said.
In August, Met Éireann awarded €2.8m to six research projects to develop climate services and new flood forecasting models.
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