Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) with special responsibility for research, Martin Heydon, announced €4 million in funding for 21 new policy-focused research projects.
The awards arise from the department’s 2024 Policy and Strategic Studies Research Call.
Projects related to bovine tuberculosis (bTB), food waste, a national soil strategy and monitoring programme, and attitudes and behaviours towards climate change mitigation are among those awarded funding under the 2024 call.
Making the announcement, Minister Heydon said: “I introduced a new research funding instrument in 2022 aimed at supporting short-term projects that directly address policy, strategy or regulatory issues in the agri-food, forest and bioeconomy sectors.
“Since then, I have been pleased to award funding to 25 projects and today, I am building on this with a further €4 million for 21 new projects.”
Funding for research
The 2024 call contained 28 areas of challenge and opportunity which were developed across the department, under the broad headings of: Food safety; animal health and welfare; agriculture; environmental sustainability; bioeconomy; and forestry.
Projects can be up to 12 or 24 months in duration, with funding of up to €100,000 or €250,000, respectively.
Commenting the 2024 Research Call, Minister Heydon said: “There is a wide breath of policy areas covered by the successful projects.
“This includes three projects related to TB which will examine biosecurity measures and communication, modelling for badger population dynamics, and the association between herd bovine TB breakdown and herd nutritional, metabolic and immune status.”
“I am also pleased to be able to award funding to two projects which directly address recommendations of the Food Vision Tillage Group – investigating the feasibility of oilseed crops processing in Ireland, and a feasibility assessment of organic feed milling.
“My department is committed to funding high quality, public-good research that addresses knowledge gaps and develops the evidence for public policy, strategy and regulation. These 21 projects will make an important contribution to this and I look forward to their findings and outputs over the coming two years,” the minister said.
Projects
| Coordinator and institute | Project title |
|---|---|
| Orla Keane, Teagasc | Multi-species swards for herd health |
| Mohammad Mohammadrezaei, Teagasc | Explaining Climate Change Mitigation Uptake Behaviour Change Dynamics: Farmers’ Attitudes, Motivations, and Barriers (EMIT-CHANGE) |
| Amanda Sosa, University College Dublin (UCD) | More than Wood: Assessment of Non-Wood Products and Services |
| Colin Kellehe,r National Botanic Gardens | Seed sourcing strategies for native broadleaf forestry species |
| Jennifer Attard, Munster Technological University (MTU) | Waste reduction initiatives for sustainable primary food production |
| Helena McMahon, MTU | Circular Bioeconomy Education Centre |
| Aine Ni Dhubhain, UCD | Closer-to-Nature Forest Management in Ireland |
| Simone Ciuti, UCD | Moving Badgers – Studying badger movement and interaction rate with both co-specifics and cattle to unravel their role in the spread of bovine tuberculosis across Irish ecosystems |
| Thia Hennessy, University College Cork (UCC) | Investigating the Feasibility of Oilseed Processing in Ireland (OILPRO) |
| Karen Daly, Teagasc | A National Soil Strategy and Monitoring Programme for Ireland |
| Nicola Fletcher, UCD | Investigation of the risk of novel sources of hepatitis E virus to humans in Ireland: A One Health approach |
| Niamh Field,Teagasc | Association between herd bovine tuberculosis breakdown and herd nutritional, metabolic and immune status |
| Kevin Kilcline,Teagasc | Evaluating National And EU Comprehensive Targets in Organics |
| Áine Regan,Teagasc | Optimising Biosecurity Risk Communication Pathways for Bovine Tuberculosis |
| Fiona Thorne,Teagasc | Feasibility Assessment for ORganic Feed Milling (FARM) |
| Guerrino Macori, UCD | Advanced Serotyping for Porcine Pathogens Using Nanopore Sequencing Technology |
| Locksley Messam, UCD | Bitten by A Dog in the Republic of Ireland: A HUMan and ANimal Problem |
| JJ Leahy, University of Limerick (UL) | Policy options for facilitating the adoption of biobased fertilisers from digestate in an Irish context |
| Conor McAloon, UCD | Q-fever in Ireland – characterising zoonotic risk |
| Michael Gaffney, Teagasc | Steps towards developing a framework to establish the economic and structural impact of potential invasive plant pest introductions in Irish Agriculture |
| Patrick McGetrick, University of Galway | CARBon footprint assessment linking FORest products across the full VALue chain |
36 contract positions will be created for postdoctoral (19) and other researchers (17) and the gender balance of the project coordinators is 10 male and 11 female.