AMBER’s Smart Islands Project featured on TG4 Nuacht Cúla4

6 March 2026

Smart Islands is a cross-border engaged research and citizen science initiative that began in January 2026. With island primary schools as a hub, the project focuses on working with local communities on Rathlin Island (Northern Ireland) and Inis Mór (Republic of Ireland) to identify how materials science and bioengineering can improve island life across 3 themes: Health, Energy & Sustainability and Biodiversity. Smart Islands promotes interdisciplinary innovation by bringing together citizens of all ages with experts in societal challenges and materials science.

AMBER & Engaged Research

Smart Islands brings AMBER researchers in dialogue with local communities from the beginning of research. It is through this dialogue that issues and needs of relevance to citizens are identified, which researchers respond to. Using a model developed as part of the Amai! project in Flanders, Belgium, Smart Islands brings STEM and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences to work meaningfully together.

Project coordinators

• Mairead Holden, AMBER
• Beverley McCormick, School of Education, Ulster University
• Adrian Boyd, School of Biomedical Engineering, Ulster University
• Tríona Nic Fhinn, Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscoileanna  (COGG)

Consultants: Prof. Justin Magee (Ulster University) & Jef Van Laer (Citizen Science Advisor, Scivil)

This past week AMBER and partners travelled to Inis Mór and Rathlin Island visiting primary schools used as hubs to explore how materials science and bioengineering can improve island life, from health and energy to sustainability and biodiversity. Seeing pupils design solutions for their communities using LEGO as a creative tool was truly inspiring.

TG4 Nuacht Cúla4 came along to film some of the event and featured it this week, click the image below to watch.