Spring Digital Digest

Hi folks, welcome to the first issue of our online newsletter!

Bluebells in Emo Court woods, Co. Laois. Image courtesy of Paolo Viscardi.

We are very excited to start this rollout, with the aim of compiling news, jobs and events from across the island of Ireland into one place. Given this being the first issue, we will have inevitably missed subjects that deserved inclusion, and we look forward to fine-tuning the contents of this newsletter in future issues, which will be easier with your help, so do consider sharing your items for the Summer Digital Digest in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

Employment opportunities:

Pollinator Monitoring Research Assistant, NBDC. Closing date Fri 17^th April
Pollinator Monitoring Research Assistant – Moths, NBDC. Closing date Fri 17^th April
Ecologist, South Dublin County Council. Closing date Thu 23^rd April

Policy news:

Conferences:

Sat 25^th April: BSBI Irish Spring Conference, National Botanic Gardens.
Thu 14^th– Fri 15^th May: Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) conference, with theme “Collaborating and Connecting with Natural History,”at The Ulster Museum in Belfast. Early-bird registration closes Wed April 15^th.
- Bursaries available https://www.natsca.org/awards-and-bursaries
Thu 11^th– Fri 12^th June: Irish Society of Parasitology The ISP Annual Meeting 2026 will take place in Dublin at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks.
Mon 15^th– Tue 16^th June: Irish Plant Scientists’ Association Meeting (IPSAM) 2026 will take place in the National Botanic Gardens.

Training, workshops and short courses:

In March, second-year botany and zoology students from Atlantic Technological University visited the National Museum (NMINH) and the National Botanic Gardens (NBG). The group were captivated by the remarkable diversity of specimens at the NMINH, as well as the extensive herbarium and seed bank collections at the NBG. A big thank you to everyone involved in making the field trip such a memorable and enriching experience.

BSBI training:

Sat 9^th May: BSBI Beginner’s Recording in Lagan Valley Regional Park, Co. Antrim
Fri 5^th June: Key to Irish Hawkweeds workshop, Belfast by Tim Rich

BSBI Webinars (evenings), for example:

Wed 29^th April: “Recording For Beginners – Deciding where and what to record – using the BSBI’s distribution maps and database”
Wed 6^th May: “Recording For Beginners – Why getting to know your plants facilitates recording of other species groups

NBDC training events and workshops, for example:

Sat 18^th April: Intro to ship-based cetacean surveys
Sat 16^th May: Monitoring and identifying bumblebees for beginners
Fri 26^th June: Intro to Irish Vegetation Classification

Events:

Wed 15^th April: Birdwatch Talk, 7.45pm, Auditorium, National Botanic Gardens. No booking needed.
Thu 16^th April: Documentary Film: The Tolka – This is Your River, Auditorium, 7.30pm, National Botanic Gardens
Sat 9^th – Mon 11^th May: Native Species Festival, Dublin Zoo
Fri 15^th – Sat 24^th May: National Biodiversity Week, events across the Republic & NI
Sat 16^th May: BSBI meeting, Colligan Wood, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford
Sat 23^rd May: BSBI meeting, Arthurstown to Ballyhack, Co. Wexford

Grants and funding opportunities

Nowlan Digitisation Grant (€10,000), Royal Irish Academy. Submissions close Wed 15^th April.

Publications:

Irish Naturalist’s Journal, Vol. 42, 21 December 2025
Journal of Natural Science Collections, Vol. 14 (2026)

Who Are We?

The All-Ireland Natural Sciences Consortium (AINSC) provides a forum for people working in the natural sciences in Ireland, to share awareness of what is happening in the broader sector. As part of this we hold meetings and seminar days at a variety of partner organisation sites – they’re a great way to see what’s happening and they offer a chance to talk and make connections with colleagues across the natural sciences sector in Ireland.

Here are some photos from past meetings:

Patrick Langan gives a tour of the National Herbarium’s high throughput digitisation setup, as part of the Interreg project “DigiHerb” which concluded in 2025. National Botanic Gardens, April 17 2025. Image courtesy of Paolo Viscardi.

Mike Simms leads a tour of the Wild Ireland exhibit at Ulster Museum, Belfast, 8 August 2025. Image courtesy of Nigel Monaghan.

Kevin Healy gives a talk on the James Mitchell Geology Museum, University of Galway, at the TCD Mini Symposium Day, Trinity College Dublin,17 October 2025. Image courtesy of Nigel Monaghan.

Peter Moonlight gives a tour of TCD Herbarium with a selection of historic botanical specimens. Trinity College Dublin, 17 October 2025. Image courtesy of Nigel Monaghan.

If you are interested in being updated on future meetings and activities you can subscribe to the AINSC mailing list here to be kept up-to-date.