The closing date for stage one applications under the farm health, safety and wellbeing European Innovation Partnership (EIP) is fast approaching on Friday 29 January.

The stage one call for proposals was launched in December 2020 and requires completion of a short application form which sets out the main elements of the proposed project.

All forms and guidance notes are available at https://www.gov.ie/en/service/18a855-european-innovation-partnership-scheme/.

Submissions

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for farm safety Martin Heydon is urging all interested parties with ideas to submit an application.

He said: “I was delighted to secure funding of €1m 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 two

Stage one applications which are deemed suitable will progress to stage two.

Here, 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.

These plans will be again assessed by an expert committee and successful projects will advance to full implementation.

The costs of implementation is also funded under the EIP initiative.

Project funding

The farm health, safety and wellbeing EIP is co-funded by the European Commission as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme.

There are in the region of 20 EIP projects in operation in Ireland and this is the first call for proposals which targets farm health, safety and wellbeing.