An additional €5.4 million in research grant awards was recently announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed.
In addition to the awards announced earlier in July, this brings the total grants awarded for collaborative inter-institutional agri-food research under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s 2017 Competitive Research Call to over €19 million.
The largest award of almost €3 million relates to the GREENBREED project, led by Teagasc, which aims to develop tools and resources to continuously improve the environmental footprint of the dairy, beef and sheep sectors.
Commenting on the funding announcement, Minister Creed said: “The investment in GREENBREED will put Ireland at the cutting edge internationally in terms of innovative research in animal breeding for reduced environmental footprint.
“It will contribute to my department’s ongoing strategic investments to ensure that the long-term sustainability of Irish agriculture is placed on the strongest possible footing, in line with the Food Wise strategy.”
- The development of advanced technologies for the detection and control of microbial contaminants to increase the shelf-life and safety of food products;
- The optimal use of bio-active fish components for health enhancement;
- Research to help define a unique ‘signature’ for Irish grass-fed beef;
- A project to examine the effects of dietary fibres on gut microbiota and metabolic health in at risk individuals.
Concluding, the minister said: “My department’s investment in this agri-food research will support the sector to innovate in terms of production efficiency, higher value products and environmental sustainability.
“I hope that it will also raise awareness of the contribution the sector can make to Ireland’s sustainable bio-economy in the future.”