feed, fuel (energy), fibre, chemicals and medicines to sustain their health and livelihoods. As incomes and purchasing power rise, such resource requirements will rise also. Where food supply does not keep pace with demand, prices rise, disproportionately affecting the poor and especially the poorest in all societies. The food security challenge is immense and urgent—according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), there are over 1 billion undernourished people in developing countries, suffering from the interlinked problems of hunger and poverty. A number of factors are now rapidly converging to aggravate the state of food insecurity, including population increases, changing consumption patterns, increasing incomes, growing demand for meat and dairy (especially grain-fed), growing demand for biofuels, scarcity of land and water, slowing of agricultural productivity and adverse impacts of climate change. The Ryan Institute’s Plant and AgriBiosciences Research Centre (PABC) is focused on the major challenge of accelerating the development and introduction of new suites of productivity-increasing, bio-based technologies and systems (for crops, animals, algae, fish, forestry, food and biological wastes), that are sustainable. Sustainable agri- food systems will involve transitions to zero-waste and circular economy concepts in all food-related bioeconomies at the production, processing and consumption stages. This will involve development of biorefinery systems which can be the sources of the renewable bio-based products of the future. The Ryan Institute’s Bioeconomy Cluster is focused on the development of more sustainable bioeconomy systems to support humanity. Environment and Health A clean environment is essential for human health and well-being. However, the interactions between the environment and human health are highly complex and challenging to understand. The Ryan Institute’s Centre for One Health (CoH) conducts research to unravel such complexity. Examples of ways in which environment and health interact include where poor sanitation and unsafe water supplies lead to water-related diseases, particularly in urban areas. Our sources of heat or energy, and the design of our houses, buildings and transport systems can contribute to indoor and outdoor air pollution causing respirato0ry disease. Such challenges are being confronted by the Ryan Institute’s Built Environment and Smart Cities Research Cluster.
Changing climatic and environmental conditions can increase the incidence of diseases, including diseases that are transmitted between animals and humans. The inappropriate use of antibiotics can threaten many of the medical breakthroughs of the last century, now in danger of being lost through the spread of antimicrobial resistance which renders antibiotics ineffective. The Ryan Institute’s Biodiversity and Bioresources Research Cluster conducts research to mitigate the global loss of biodiversity and degradation of natural capital that continues at a rapid pace. This is despite the fact that biodiversity and well-functioning ecosystems provide a range of benefits—both direct and indirect—to society and the economy, playing a crucial role in sustaining livelihoods, health and well-being. Efforts to meet the global 2020 biodiversity targets need to play a key role in achieving key priorities, notably reducing hunger and poverty, improving health and ensuring a sustainable supply of food and clean water. Sustainable use of ecosystem services and natural capital can become a key driver in the transition to a green economy. The Ryan Institute also has cross-cutting Research Centres and Clusters such as the Economic and Social Impact Cluster , and the Modelling and Informatics Research Cluster .
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Did you know? The Ryan Institute is NUI Galway’s largest research institute, with 91 research teams responsible for over 20% of university research income. Multi-disciplinary Ryan Institute research teams published over 2,300 peer-reviewed papers between 2013 and 2018 (27,000+ citations). Ryan Institute papers account for over 25% of all research papers and citations from NUI Galway, with half of all Ryan Institute papers in the top 10% of research journals worldwide (60% with international partners). Ryan Institute research teams regularly publish in high-impact journals such as Nature, PNAS, The Lancet, Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, among others. The Ryan Institute is a member of international organisations such as the GCUA Global Challenges University Alliance, EuroMarine, AgriNatura and the BioBased Industries Consortium.
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