Grant awards of over €20 million for agri-food and forest research have been announced by Minister Simon Coveney and Minister of State Tom Hayes.

Over €20m will go to collaborative inter-institutional research projects under the Department's competitive research funding programmes, the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM), the Research Stimulus Fund (RSF), and the Programme of Competitive Forest Research for Development (CoFoRD), following the Department's call for research proposals.

The awards cover a broad range of research activities well aligned to the ‘Sustainable Food Production and Processing’ and ‘Food for Health’ areas of National Research Prioritisation. The research includes the health and welfare of livestock; sheep breeding; crop production; food safety at producer and processor level; private sector timber forecasting; wood use material flow; and assessing Ireland’s risk to airborne spread of ash dieback disease.

The funding will provide employment for 58 highly trained scientist and 53 post-graduate students in specialised scientific training places.

Commenting on the grants awarded, Minister Coveney said: “this investment will build research capacity and capability in the Irish public research system and ultimately make a significant contribution to the sustainability and competitiveness of the Irish agri-food, forestry and aquaculture sectors."