The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for Farm Safety, Martin Heydon T.D., today reminded interest parties that the closing date for the receipt of stage 1 applications under the Farm Health, Safety and Wellbeing EIP is the 29th of January 2021.
Minister Heydon commented, “I was delighted to secure funding of €1 million in Budget 2021 to support innovative approaches to what remains a key challenge on Irish farms. This open call for proposals under the EIP model provides the opportunity for interested parties to investigate and road test new and innovative ways of dealing with these farm health, safety and wellbeing challenges.”
Stage 1 of the EIP call for proposals on Farm Health, Safety and Wellbeing was launched in December 2020, with a closing date of Friday 29 January 2021. At Stage 1, a short application form is required which sets out the main elements of a proposed project. All forms and guidance notes are available at www.gov.ie/en/service/18a855-european-innovation-partnership-scheme/
Minister Heydon concluded by saying, “We are now reminding all those interested in bringing forward their plans and ideas that the closing date for the receipt of stage 1 applications is midnight the 29th January 2021. This exciting initiative will help us to put in place innovative approaches in this vital area, all proposals are welcome, and I would urge all interested parties to submit their ideas.”
Note for Editors:
The EIP initiative is co-funded by the EU Commission as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme. Essentially it involves a range of stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, NGOs etc) coming together in what are termed ‘Operational Groups’ to trial innovative solutions that the Group themselves have developed. There is a wide range of EIP Operational Groups already in existence under Irelands RDP, but this is the first call for proposals which specifically targets farm health, safety and wellbeing.
In Stage 1, Groups are required to provide outline details of their proposal and approach. This is the stage was launched in December 2020, with a closing date of 29 January 2021. These short proposals are assessed by an expert committee, and those proposals successfully selected at Stage 1 move to Stage 2
In Stage 2, the initial proposals are developed in much greater detail and each proposal must submit a detailed project plan at this stage – the development of these plans is funded under the EIP initiative. All these detailed project plans are again assessed by an expert committee, with successful projects moving to full implementation. Implementation of projects is also funded under the EIP initiative.
Full guidance notes and application forms for interested parties are available at www.gov.ie/en/service/18a855-european-innovation-partnership-scheme/