merrion street

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney today announced grant awards of approximately €32 million for research projects being undertaken, on a collaborative basis, by researchers from institutions across the island of Ireland.

The awards cover a broad range of research activities relating to sustainable food production and processing as well as forestry.

In general these awards will help maintain research capacity and capability in the Irish public research system that contributes to underpinning the sustainability and competitiveness of the Irish agri-food and forest sector by providing trained expertise; new innovative techniques and technologies to improve farming and manufacturing practices; novel formulations with potential for future commercialisation of new products; as well as robust scientific evidence for policy development.

The Minister said:

Publicly funded research will continue to play a key role in driving innovation within the bio-economy thus contributing to the growth targets outlined in the Food Harvest 2020 and ultimately making a positive contribution to the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs

.

Many of the projects funded involve a farm to fork approach.

The Minister welcomed this, saying:

I am particularly pleased to see the integrated nature of the research projects being funded as this will play a crucial role in driving innovation in the sector. For example, the project that will look at how animal breeding will impact on meat quality is particularly interesting and innovative. I am also pleased to see that the issue of sustainability being addressed, at various levels, within many of these research projects. This is entirely consistent with the Think Green, Act Smart, Achieve Growth principles of Food Harvest 2020 as it will help provide a solid verifiable basis to underpin claims about the green credentials of Irish food which will be a major selling point on export markets in the coming years

.

Read the full press release

.