AESI Annual Meeting 2025 Information

he 2025 AESI Annual Meeting will take place June 11-12, 2025 at the School for Agriculture and Food Science, UCD, Dublin.

The conference will include a variety of presentations on agricultural, environmental, and rural development economics and plenary session by Dr. Mauro Vigani of DG AGRI. Click here for a detailed schedule and click here for the book of abstracts.

Please register to attend the event below or on the Eventbrite page, with 4 distinct options:

Standard rate, excluding the optional conference dinner: €100
Student rate, excluding the optional conference dinner: €90
Standard rate, including the optional conference dinner: €140
Student rate, including the optional conference dinner: €130
AESI membership fees are including in these rates.

The conference dinner will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 11th June (more details to follow)

If you would like to book accommodation on the UCD campus, please click here. Use the code AESI3040 before May 6th for a discount in booking for accommodation from June 10-13th.

Register on Eventbrite

The call for abstracts now closed!

This year will feature four types of research submissions.

Standard paper session: 10 min presentation + 5 min Q&A
Discussion paper session: 15 min presentation + 3 min discussant + 5 min Q&A
*NEW* Lightning presentation session (for research at very early stages or those wanting feedback prior to data collection): 5 min presentation +5 min Q&A
Poster presentation session: open exhibition

Please find abstract submission forms for standard and discussion papers here
Please fine abstract submission forms for lightning and poster presentations here

Please submit abstracts to secretary.aesi@gmail.com by March 31st 2025

Important Dates:
Call for abstracts opens: January 31
Call for abstracts closes: March 31
Speaker notifications: April 14th
Full paper submissions due: May 31st

AESI Annual Meeting 2025

This year’s annual conference took place in Dublin at the UCD campus. Starting on June 11, AESI members gathered for 2 days of presentations and networking. There were 31 presentations in total, 6 discussion papers, 17 standard presentations, 10 lightning presentations, and a fantastic keynote presentation by Mauro Vigiani.

Dr. Mauro Vigiani presenting his Keynote session

The annual general meeting was also held during the conference, resulting in the reaffirmation of the officer roles of treasurer (David Stead), secretary (Shannon McGuire), and public relations (Julian Worley), and the election of the new president (Michael Wallace). A warm thank you is extended to Erin Sherry who as served as the association president for the last year.

From left to right: Dr. Erin Sherry (past president), Dr. Mauro Vigiani (keynote speaker), and Dr. Michael Wallace (current president)

 Prof. Wallace also delivered a presidential address and closed the conference. We look forward to next years conference, the location of which will be announced later in the autumn.

Conference participants prior to the conference dinner

Thank you to all the attendees, presenters, and session chairs who helped make the conference a success. We greatly appreciate your participation. A special thank you to this year’s organizing committee which consisted of Edel Kelly, Brian Leonard, Shannon McGuire, Julian Worley, and Erin Sherry.

Conference oranizing committee (left to right): Brian Leonard, Shannon McGuire, Erin Sherry, Edel Kelly, Julian Worley

Early Career Day 2025 – Meeting Information

The 2025 Early Career Day will take place on 30th January in Teagasc Ashtown.

The call for abstracts now closed, but please see the book of abstracts here
Please click here for a schedule of the event

Following the same format as last year, this year’s edition will include two types of sessions: standard and discussion papers.

Standard paper session: 10 min presentation + 5 min Q&A
Discussion paper session: 15 min presentation + 3 min discussant + 5 min Q&A

Submissions from postdoctoral researchers and PhD students are welcome on economic and social research in the fields of agriculture, food, the environment and rural development.

A panel session on “Insights into the Peer Review Process” has been organised. We have a very exciting line up:

  • Dr Lorraine Balaine, Teagasc
  • Dr Cathal Buckley, Teagasc
  • Dr Edel Kelly, University College Dublin
  • Professor Alberto Longo, Queen’s University Belfast

Early Career Day Meeting Recap

Yesterday at Teagasc Ashtown we had 11 student presentations, a panel session on publishing and the peer review process, and the awarding of the annual Prof. Bob O’Conner awards. It was a great time full of lively discussion and networking.

Special attention should go to the winners of the Prof Bob O’Conner awards, Niamh Dunphy of both Teagasc and UCD for her discussion paper ‘Behavioral Drivers and Barriers for Adopting Climate Mitigation Actions on Farm’ and Holly Mullan of both Teagasc and Ulster University for her standard paper ‘Farm Successors in waiting – Initial insights’.

From left to right: AESI President Erin Sherry, Niamh Dunphy, and AESI President Elect Michael Wallace
From left to right: AESI President Erin Sherry, Molly Mullan, and AESI President Elect Michael Wallace

A special thanks to all who helped make the event happen, including our judges (Erin Sherry, Michael Wallace, Brian Leonard, and Lorraine Balaine) and our panel speakers (Lorraine Balaine, Cathal Buckley, Edel Kelly, and Alberto Longo)

Prof. Bob O’Conner Prize Judges left to right: Michael Wallace, Erin Sherry, Brian Leonard, Lorraine Balaine
Panel Members left to right: Lorraine Balaine, Edel Kelly, Cathal Buckley, Alberto Longo

AESI Annual Conference 2024

The 2024 Annual Conference took place on 25-27th June in Ulster University, Belfast.

The programme of the event can be viewed at this link.

Click here to view the book of abstracts (standard sessions).

Click on the following links to view the discussion papers:

  • Westhoff and Binfield – Diverging paths: EU and U.S. farm support programs in a changing political and economic environment
  • Kyei and de Bruin – The impact of climate-induced stress on Irish labour productivity
  • Knapp et al. – Financing the forestry transition: An expert stakeholder analysis

Thank you to our presenters and panel speakers for the special session on “Anaerobic Digestion Policy and Practice: Experience to Date”!

From left to right: Erin Sherry (AFBI), Ian Marshall (CASE), Chris Johnston (AFBI), Ursula Lavery (Moy Park, QUB), Barry Caslin (Teagasc), Jonathan McFerran (DAERA), Redmond McEvoy (DAFM), Maurice Deasy (Teagasc), Paul Caskie (AFBI) and Fiona Thorne (Teagasc)

Congratulations to Erin Sherry, our new President, for her address on “Externalities, efficiency and Fairness”.

Thank you to Chris Johnston and Taro Takahashi (AFBI) for the visit of the AFBI research facility in Hillsborough, including the Renewable Energy Centre.

Early Career Day 2024

The 2024 Early Career Day took place in Teagasc Ashtown on 25th Jan 2024.

The full programme is available here and the Book of Abstracts is available here.

Conference highlights: 

  • Panel session on “Navigating Early Career” with Dr Adewale Adenuga (AFBI), Dr Tracy Bradfield (UCC), Dr Teresa Hooks (NWRA) and Dr Wellington Osawe (UCD).
  • Plenary session on “The Importance of Open Data” by Dr John Hyland (Teagasc)
  • Bob O’Connor prize won by Marie Merlo (UCC and Teagasc) for the discussion session and Úna Sinnott (UCD and Teagasc) for the standard session
  • Teagasc REDP-sponsored 1st PhD prize won by Chathurrdhika Yogarajah (UCD and Teagasc)

Congratulations to all involved!