It has been commonly accepted that knowledge is the key differentiator of competitive advantage in the modern economy. University as the normal form of high educational organization played important role of education and research. However, closer links are needed between education, research and innovation, to create a common vision of the challenges ahead.

Civil Engineering in University College Dublin (UCD) has broad disciplines including water and environmental engineering. In recent years, green technologies in water and wastewater engineering is the design of products and processes that maximise resource and energy efficiency, minimise waste and cause reduced harm to the environment. In modern society, engineers equipped with the skills to develop these sustainable technologies are particularly valuable. This paper aims to exploring simultaneously the education and research via the final year projects in civil engineering class of UCD. Groups of final year students were offered different types of small scale research projects, which fall into cutting edge examples of sustainable technologies relevant to water and wastewater engineering. These research-based learning approaches were the challenge for the majority of students who had not previously been exposed to it at the undergraduate level. Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Several case studies were summarized in this paper. These case studies were delivered using assessable methodology which involved substantial group work as well as self-directed learning. In particular, overall outcomes of the projects are the preliminary development of the novel technologies, which lead to attracting new research fundings and high peer-reviewed publications, thus demonstrating the win-win situation of education and research.