On the occasion of Science Week 2022, Martin Heydon, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for Research and Development, has announced funding for two tillage focused research projects, a new research dashboard, and a series of science webinars.
Running from 13-20 November, Science Week aims to engage the Irish public on science, to discuss and explore the possibilities that science offers, and this year has the specific theme of ‘Infinite Possibilities’. Science and research are critical to the sustainable development of the agri-food, forest, marine and bioeconomy sector.
Marking the occasion, Minister Heydon announced two projects from a European agrobiodiversity research Call that will benefit from €1 million in funding, saying, “these two projects will provide practical knowledge on how diversity can improve our agricultural systems. They will focus on improving the resilience of barley and wheat crops across the EU, two of its most important crops. A central element of the Food Vision 2030 Strategy is to restore and enhance biodiversity and this investment in research I am announcing today will be an important contributor to delivering on this commitment.”
The Minister also announced the launch of a new online dashboard that offers the public access to a range of information and statistics on research being funded by the department.
Speaking on this Minister Heydon said, “this department is a significant funder of public-good research in Ireland, having invested over €207 million since 2010. It is crucial we continue to invest in modernising and increasing the resilience of our agri-food systems. The research we fund plays a crucial role in that and it is important that it can be accessed by the public and stakeholders alike.”
As part of Science Week 2022, the Minister also announced a series of webinars on projects being funded by the department.
They include:
- The ‘SMARTSWARD’ project assessing the use of multispecies swards for sustainable pasture-based farming
- Four projects exploring the mitigation and monitoring of greenhouse gases from agriculture
- Two projects on the National Adult Food Consumption Survey and dietary guidelines for sustainable and healthy eating
The Minister remarked, “while my department funds a wide range of research areas, we have chosen a selection of projects on topics that are of particularly high interest and I would encourage everyone to sign up to these webinars on the department’s website.”
