The Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine has announced the opening of a new support measure for the bioeconomy.
The Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative is part of the EU Just Transition Fund for Ireland and is designed to pilot and demonstrate the bioeconomy “in action” within the Just Transition Fund Territory.
The scheme is co-funded to the tune of €10 million by the government and the EU through the EU Just Transition Fund.
It will support two bioeconomy piloting and demonstration projects in the ‘designated territories’ of the midlands.
These territories include:
- Co. Laois;
- Co. Longford;
- Co. Offaly;
- Co. Westmeath;
- Co. Roscommon;
- Ballinasloe Municipal District (Co. Galway);
- Athy and Clane-Maynooth municipal districts (Co. Kildare);
- Carrick-on-Suir and Thurles municipal districts (Co. Tipperary).
The aim is to provide opportunities to support collaboration between stakeholders along the entire bio-based value chain.
These include small and medium enterprises (SMEs), research performing organisations, universities, local authorities, primary producers, bioprocessing industries, and consumer brands.
According to the department, the fund will support bioeconomy innovation at the Just Transition Fund territorial level, and will seek the active involvement of local bodies such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs); local and regional authorities; and community and local action groups; alongside the bio-based industries.
The funding will support two projects, each of which will be in line to receive €5 million.
The closing date for the call for project proposals is October 13, with no facility for late applications as scheme actions have to be completed by November 1, with a view to initial payment in mid-December.
Commenting on the funding initiative, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said: “The bioeconomy has significant potential to improve the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the agri-food sector.
“For example, it is now possible to replace products produced from fossil resources with those produced by bio-resources from land and sea, including new biofertilisers and biopesticides, high protein food and feed, bio-based plastics and textiles, and much more besides.
“Utilising biomass, including biowastes, from agriculture, food production and processing in this circular way means we can extract more value from our agri-food system while simultaneously improving overall environmental and climate sustainability,” the minister added.
Minister of State for research and innovation Martin Heydon commented: “The Just Transition funding for bioeconomy demonstration initiatives in the midlands will build on the research and innovation capacity that has been developed through previous funding.
“With these building blocks now in place, it is critical that we move those bioeconomy innovations from the research lab to scaled-up demonstration level. This will help the agri-food system to become more circular, sustainable, and resilient,” Minister Heydon added.
Minister of State for land use and biodiversity Pippa Hackett drew attention to the potential benefit for the midlands region.
“I am hugely excited by the potential for midlands farmers, community groups, research organisations, local authorities, SMEs and other enterprises to come together to realise the potential of the bioeconomy for this region and beyond,” she said.
There is planned to be a further call for proposals next year which will also be funded to the amount of €10 million, bringing the total available funding to €20 million for the Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative scheme across 2023 and 2024.
The department will run an information session on how to apply to the call for proposals on August 28 at 11:00a.m, for which pre-registration is required.