Thousands of students and staff will be doing DIY rapid testing in a summer study aimed at developing a Covid surveillance system for college campuses ahead of the autumn reopening.

Four universities are participating in the eight-week project, which will also monitor wastewater to check the level of infection in the on-campus community.

A variety of self-administered rapid tests, using saliva or nasal swabs, will be trialled at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, NUI Galway and University College Cork.

Professor Orla Sheils, dean of the faculty of health sciences at Trinity, said the idea was to find “that sweet spot where you have a test that is most accurate but also most acceptable for people to do”.

The study is a partnership between Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the universities.

Higher and further education colleges have been closed to all but essential in-class teaching since March 2020 and the intention is to reopen to the maximum extent possible in September.

Rapid testing for Covid, which can help spot infection where individuals are asymptomatic, is being explored as an additional public health measure to be introduced. About 40pc of people with Covid are asymptomatic, especially in younger age groups.

The universities hope to each recruit up to 5,000 people for the study from among staff and students on site over the summer. Some universities will also involve a local institute of technology, technological university and/or further education college.

The study group will be broken down into two cohorts who will trial different tests.

Since last autumn, Trinity has conducted a Covid screening programme called LAMP, involving saliva samples, and Prof Sheils said about 1,100 students and staff participated, with a positivity rate of 1pc. The LAMP programme will be part of a pilot study at both Trinity and UCD.

Among those eagerly awaiting the Trinity summer study are students and staff at its Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art, where Covid has forced the start of its third term to be delayed from April to July.

When it comes to training actors and other theatre and film industry professionals, such as set designers, there is only so much that can be done online or at a social distance of two metres.

Lir is pinning participation in the study, along with an anticipated relaxation of the distance rule, to a return to areas of training that have been curtailed, such as the proximity of people in movement classes as well as rehearsals without the two-metre constraint.

“Essentially what we have done is postpone certain learning activities until term three, starting on July 12,” said Lir director Loughlin Deegan. “The pilot study will allow us to reintroduce vital learning in a structured way, with the oversight of the research project to ensure we are working as safely as we possibly can.”