The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, TD, today announced a new Call for research proposals to help drive innovation in the agri-food sector as envisaged in Food Wise 2025.
Minister Coveney said “We must place Ireland at the forefront of innovation in support of sustainable intensification of food production and for that we need world class research. Publicly funded research will continue to play a key role in driving innovation contributing to the targets outlined in Food Wise 2025”.
This Call will fund high quality and impactful research designed to make the Irish agri food sector more competitive and environmentally and economically sustainable and to help it achieve the strategic growth targets in Food Wise 2025. It will also build and maintain critical research capacity and capability in the Irish public research system.
The content of the Call is heavily informed by the strategic research agendas SHARP[1] and FORI[2], which were developed following broad stakeholder engagement, and included input from the Department’s National Agri-Food Research & Innovation (NAFRI) Group chaired by industry. The areas covered by Call 2015 include animal and crop production, food processing, food for health, food integrity and safety, forest management production and resource utilisation, the wider bio-economy as well as the sustainability of the supply chain.
[1] Sustainable Healthy Agri-Food Research Plan
[2] Forest Research Ireland
Concluding the Minister wished the applicants every success with their applications and stated “I am sure that the Research Community will take full advantage of this opportunity by submitting excellent proposals.”
The deadline for proposal applications is Thursday 10th December 2015 at 1.00pm. Documentation in relation to the Call is available on the Research Section of the Department’s website:
www.agriculture.gov.ie/research
Notes for Editor:
Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM) is the main programme for funding food research in research performing organisations in Ireland including Teagasc and the Higher Education Institutes (HEI) thereby contributing to building and maintaining a research capability that helps underpin a vibrant, competitive and innovative food manufacturing industry.
Research Stimulus Fund (RSF) aims to facilitate research that fills gaps in the mainstream Teagasc programme, supports sustainable and competitive agricultural production practices and policies, and contributes to building and maintaining a knowledge economy and research capability in the agriculture sector.
Programme of Competitive Forestry Research for Development (CoFoRD) aims to develop a scientific foundation and support for a sustainable, competitive, market orientated and innovative forest industry.
Sustainable Healthy Agri-Food Research Plan (SHARP), launched in June 2015, is a new strategic research agenda for the Sustainable Food Production & Processing and Food for Health priority areas of the National Research Prioritisation Exercise (NRPE).
Forest Research Ireland (FORI), launched in 2014, is a strategic research agenda for Forest research, which was developed by a Working Group of the COFORD Council.
Ends.
Source: www.agriculture.gov.ie