Martin Heydon, Ireland’s Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, and Damien O’Connor M.P., New Zealand’s Minister for Agriculture, jointly launched second Ireland – New Zealand Joint Research Call on Agriculture and climate change. The announcement came during a bilateral meeting at the Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate Summit in Washington, DC.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Ireland and the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries initiated the first joint call in 2022. This move followed the signing of a Memorandum of Arrangement between both organizations in May 2022, establishing a three-year pilot Joint Research Initiative (JRI) from 2022 to 2024. The initiative recognizes the robust existing research connections and shared challenges facing the agri-food sectors in both countries. As a result, four research projects were awarded over €7 million in joint funding under the 2022 Call.
“Our discussions focused strongly on how we can develop and grow our bilateral cooperation in agricultural climate change research and innovation,” said Minister Heydon. “We are building on initiatives such as the Global Research Alliance for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and AIM for Climate.”
The Minister added, “The new bilateral research call we launched last year is important. I am pleased that we can announce today the launch of the 2023 Joint Research Call for Proposals between our two countries.”
New Zealand echoed Ireland’s sentiment, expressing pride in their partnership on this Joint Research Call. As leading agricultural nations, both countries have the opportunity to drive significant research leading to new and improved tools for reducing environmental impacts, all underpinned by cutting-edge science.
The 2023 research Call will investigate land management on organic agricultural soils, the refinement of agricultural GHG emissions inventories, the development of technologies for greenhouse gas mitigation from ruminant systems, and digitalization and data to support climate-related action and management practices in agriculture.
Minister Heydon concluded by stating, “This new research call widens the offering to researchers with two new research topics on the development of digital tools and data, and land management on agricultural organic soils to support the livestock sector to decrease its impact on the environment and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. This unique research call between Ireland and New Zealand shows both countries’ high commitment to accelerating the development of innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gases from livestock-based pasture systems. I strongly encourage Irish researchers to apply.”
Photo by Oscar Guinane on Unsplash
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