Three 51±¾É« researchers have received funding under two separate calls in the areas of green transition and digital transformation, and agri-food, forest and bioeconomy.
Professor James Sweeney, Department of Mathematics and Statistics and Professor Maurice N Collins, School of Engineering have received funding as part of the ‘Grow Phase’ of the National Challenge Fund, which is a €65 million competitive programme which aims to deliver solutions for major environmental and societal issues.
Separately Professor James J Leahy, Department of Chemical Sciences has received funding from the Department of Agriculture’s 2024 Policy and Strategic Studies Research Call.
Established under the Government’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, the National Challenge Fund has, to date, supported 96 teams to identify problems related to Ireland’s Green Transition and Digital Transformation and collaborate directly with those stakeholders most affected by them to create real and tangible solutions.
Professor Sweeney is working on GREEN-GRID, which is a real-time prediction of green electricity generation potential from renewables for optimised grid management. Co- lead in the project is Professor Vikram Pakrashi, UCD. Funded under the Energy Innovation Challenge.
Professor Collins is co-lead on Traceless, which is developing fully biodegradable tree-supporting products with controlled release of fertilizers and pesticides to avoid microplastic and chemical pollution. The lead researcher is Dr Yuanyuan Chen, TUS. Funded under the Healthy Environment for All Challenge.
Celine Fitzgerald, Interim CEO, Research Ireland, said: “The National Challenge Fund is a solution-focused approach that encourages teams to work across discipline and sectoral boundaries, enabling collaboration between academic researchers, industry and government stakeholders and end-users, and ensuring they are developing innovative and implementable solutions. I wish all the finalist teams success as they continue to develop their unique research projects.â€
A total of 16 teams receiving funding as part of this announcement are split across four challenge areas: Energy Innovation; Digital for Resilience; Healthy Environment for All and OurTech.
The teams selected will have the opportunity for additional funding in the final phase of the programme, where prize funding of between €1-2 million will be on offer to the most competitive teams under each Challenge.
In a separate announcement Professor Leahy’s project on bio-based fertilisers was announced as one of 21 new policy-focused research projects awarded a total of €4 million in funding from the department’s latest Policy and Strategic Studies Research Call.
His research will look at policy options for facilitating the adoption of bio-based fertilisers from digestate, where recommendations for implementation of compliant technical solutions will be provided for application on Irish farms and potentially for export.
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.
Making the announcement Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for research, Martin 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.
“There is a wide breath of policy areas covered by the successful projects. 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.â€
Projects can be up to 12 or 24 months in duration, with funding of up to €100,000 or €250,000, respectively.