Several UCD projects among €22m funding call by Department of Agriculture
Posted 10 July, 2024
Seven UCD researchers have been awarded funding under the (opens in a new window)latest DAFM Thematic Research Call, which announced €22.3 million for 21 new research projects.
Among the areas that this funding will support is research into climate mitigation, water quality improvement and biodiversity restoration to animal health and welfare, food safety, and food health and nutrition, amongst others.
Announcing the successful projects, Minister of State with special responsibility for Research and Development at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon TD said he was “impressed at the breadth of areas being funded”.
“I am heartened to see that the projects will involve the education and training of over 40 postgraduate students and over 60 contract researchers, thus ensuring a continuous stream of highly skilled scientific talent coming through to our industry," he added.
The UCD researchers awarded funding are:
- (opens in a new window)Dr Simone Ciuti, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science – ‘Assessing the impact of deer in Irish forest ecosystems to inform evidence-based deer management and policy’.
- (opens in a new window)Associate Professor Amalia Scannell, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science – ‘Healthy Oats: Closing the Circle: Optimising Parameters for Oat Growth, Bioctive Extraction, and Processing to Produce Sustainable Fortified Food-For-Health Products’.
- (opens in a new window)Associate Professor Carl Ng, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Scienc – ‘Biostimulants for Grass Production’.
- (opens in a new window)Professor David MacHugh, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science – ‘Integrative genomics and development of next-generation tools for the control and eradication of bovine tuberculosis’.
- (opens in a new window)Professor Finola Leonard, UCD School of Veterinary Medicin – ‘Transdisciplinary Interventions to Control Salmonella in Irish Pig Farms’.
- (opens in a new window)Dr Tomás Russell, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science – ‘Farming Minds: Developing evidence based interventions to enhance farmer mental health’.
- (opens in a new window)Associate Professor Breige McNulty, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science – ‘National Pre-school Nutrition Survey II’.
UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Kate Robson Brown offered her congratulates to the successfully funded researchers, adding that “Irish universities provide a vast resource of multidiscipline expertise and innovation that can help agricultural and bioeconomy businesses, the economy, and society meet challenges and maximise opportunities for growth.
“We welcome this investment in research by DAFM and we share the view that such investment will support Ireland’s competitiveness into the future.”
As part of ongoing North-South co-operation on agri-food research and innovation, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland providing funding as part of this call to enable eligible research organisations in Northern Ireland to participate in projects with partners in Ireland.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Caroline Byrne, UCD Research and Innovation)
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
