Congratulations to UCD School of Medicine's Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe, co-lead for funded project: AMEN - Personalised mHealth Maternal Nutritional Education for Equitable Nutritional Access and Improved Maternal and Offspring Health Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This project is focused on ensuring that women from marginalised communities in Sub-Saharan Africa can access nutrient-rich meals, improving maternal-child health outcomes through Mobile health (mHealth) interventions.
6 March 2025: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, and Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD, today announced €2.2 million funding for research projects that seek to address the global issues of hunger and food insecurity.
The Sustainable Development Goals Challenge is run in partnership with Irish Aid, and the six research projects receiving funding are focused on SDG 2: Zero Hunger. Four of these projects will be co-led by UCD. The research teams will develop a wide range of solutions that can contribute to ending hunger, achieving food security and promoting sustainable agriculture.
Minister James Lawless said: “Today’s funding announcement reinforces Ireland’s commitment to implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. With over 700 million people continuing to face food insecurity and malnutrition globally, the research of these six teams can make a real and positive impact at an international level. As these projects progress through collaboration with researchers in Irish Aid partner countries, they will work directly with those most impacted by the challenges they are addressing, delivering tangible solutions to significant societal challenges. I wish the teams every success over the coming months.”
Minister Neale Richmond said: “Ireland is committed to creating a more equal and sustainable world. Investment in transforming global food systems is crucial to delivering on this commitment. Irish Aid’s ongoing partnership with Research Ireland is an important driver of innovative and transformational change. With this Challenge focused on the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger, the projects funded today will help us combat chronic hunger, under-nutrition and gender inequality for food systems transformation.”
The six projects represent international collaborations between research institutes in Ireland and in Irish Aid partner countries – in this case, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. The research teams funded today will have the opportunity to compete for an overall prize fund of €1 million for the most competitive team as part of this challenge-based funding programme.
Celine Fitzgerald, Interim CEO, Research Ireland, said: “The SDG Challenge programme is an inspiring example of the power of international collaboration and strategic research funding. Challenge-based research funding encourages researchers to work directly with those most affected by the problems they seek to address and Research Ireland’s collaboration with Irish Aid has enabled truly international research partnerships. Ireland has a whole-of-government approach to the implementation of the SDGs and the projects funded today are a leading example of this integrated commitment. I look forward to following the progress these teams make as they develop their research projects.”
Professor Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, said, “We are delighted that UCD is co-leading four of these international partnerships, which will share valuable knowledge from research and practice across agriculture, food production, climate resilience and nutritional education. Congratulations to all of the funded teams, we look forward to following this important work.”
Professor Dolores O'Riordan, Vice-President for Global Engagement at UCD said: “The SDG Challenge embodies the power of international collaboration, bringing together expertise from Ireland and partner countries to create real-world impact. These projects demonstrate UCD’s commitment to global engagement, working with communities most affected by hunger and malnutrition to develop innovative, lasting solutions. We look forward to seeing the transformative outcomes of this vital research.”
The teams receiving funding are:
Dr Catherine Phillips, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science and co-lead Prof Fionnnuala McAuliffe, UCD School of Medicine; partner country co-lead Prof Livhuwani Muthelo, University of Limpopo, South Africa: AMEN - Personalised mHealth Maternal Nutritional Education for Equitable Nutritional Access and Improved Maternal and Offspring Health Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa
Prof Supriya Garikipati, UCD School Of Politics and International Relations and co-Lead Prof Kevin McDonnell, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science; partner country co-lead Dr John Okoth Omondi, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Malawi; Societal Impact Champion Dr Richard Petautchere, National Association of Smallholder Farmers: EMPOWER-ME - Empowering Malawian Women Farmers through Precision Agriculture and Market E-Linkages
Dr Quan Le and co-lead Dr Anh Vu Vo, UCD School of Computer Science; partner country co-lead Dr Pham Dang Tri Van, Can Tho University, Vietnam; Societal Impact Champion Dr Thi Long Trinh, Southern Institute for Water Resources Research, Vietnam: AiRRVie - AI for Climate Resilient Rice Farming in Vietnam
Dr Adwoa Serwaa Ofori and co-lead Dr Karen Keaveney, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science; partner country co-lead Prof Miriam Kalanda-Joshua, University of Malawi; Societal Impact Champion Dr Andrew Jamali, National Planning Commission: SANKOFA – ReSilient climate smArt agriculture, iNdigenous Knowledge and traditiOn For sustAinable food production.
Dr Nilushni Sivapragasam, University College Cork; partner country co-lead Prof Lesley Macheka, Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Zimbabwe; Societal Impact Champion Ms Rosemary Cumanzala, Zubo Trust: Mechanization and sustainable processing of climate-resilient cereal grains in Zimbabwe’s arid areas to ensure food and nutrition security.
Prof Audrey Tierney, University of Limerick and co-lead Dr Katie Crowley, University of Limerick; partner country co-lead Professor Benjamin Kanagwa, Makerere University, Uganda; Societal Impact Champion Mr Muhanguzi Denis Kaffoko, GOAL: IGNITE - Health System Strengthening: Implementing DiGital Health SolutioNs for Food and NutrITion SEcurity in Underdeveloped Countries.
Well done to all recipients.
For further information see the Research Ireland website.