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€22.3 million in new research grants

9th July 2024

Est. Reading: 3 minutes

Minister of State with special responsibility for Research and Development at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon T.D., has announced funding of €22.3 million for 21 new research projects arising from the ‘2023 DAFM Thematic Research Call’.

When combined with the first tranche of successful projects announced in 2023, the overall funding is €46m, the largest ever committed by the Department for a research Call.

Announcing the successful projects at an event held in Farmleigh House, Minister of State said:

“Today I am announcing €22.3 million in grant aid for 21 new research projects arising from my Department’s 2023 Thematic Research Call. This will see research work being conducted across a wide range of areas including, low emissions dairy production, carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, developing farmland nature credits, optimising oat production and processing for healthy foods, assessing the impact of deer in forestry, advancing the Irish wool sector, sustainable packaging materials, and improving shelf life of dairy products, among others”.

The 21 new projects will investigate topics including:

• Climate change mitigation and adaptation

• Water quality and biodiversity

• Animal health and welfare

• Antimicrobial and anthelmintic resistance

• Food safety

• Food health and nutrition

• Food packaging

• Bioeconomy

Minister Heydon went on to say:

“Today’s investment builds on the first tranche of projects that received funding last December. Taken together, these represent an overall investment of €46 million, the largest ever from a research Call run by my Department. This investment will help equip the Irish agriculture, food, forest and bioeconomy sectors with the science and technology they need to become even more sustainable and competitive into the future.”

Minister Heydon highlighted that the funding will support 48 postgraduate student positions and a further 55 postdoctoral and contract researchers across the 17 institutes receiving funding. Combined with the projects announced in Tranche I, this amounts to support for over 200 research positions. This ensures a pool of highly skilled researchers for these sectors, keeping Ireland at the cutting edge of science, technology and innovation.

Minister Heydon concluded:

“Practices across the agri-food, forest and bioeconomy sectors are always evolving and Ireland should be at the forefront of these developments. A steady pipeline of new solutions is the cornerstone of increasing economic, environmental, and social sustainability and the next step is for the output of these projects to reach end-users such as farmers, advisors, policy makers and industry stakeholders.”

As part of the ongoing North-South co-operation on agri-food research and innovation, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland collaborated in this research call by providing funding to enable eligible research organisations in Northern Ireland to participate in projects with partners in Ireland. Two projects will benefit from this collaboration in this Tranche II list.

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€22.3 million in new research grants

Certificate in Animal Biotechnology

MSc in Agricultural Biotechnology