Research Impact Highlights
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Go to 2021 Research Impact Highlights
Teagasc’s vision is to be a globally recognised leader in developing innovative, science-based solutions for the sustainable transformation of Ireland’s land resources into products and services that benefit society. Each year, our research, advisory and educational activities contribute towards the achievement of our vision and make a real and tangible impact on farmers, policy and industry.
This publication contains 20 examples of our research impact from 2021. The examples highlight just a snapshot of the ground-breaking research and impact being delivered from our four research programmes: Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation; Crops, Environment and Land Use; Food; and Rural Economy and Development.
The research impacts showcase applied research conducted to address key issues in areas such as soils and the environment, animal production, forestry, crop production, pest management, food processing, consumer health, economics and social science. They also tackle key societal challenges, such as antimicrobial resistance, methane reduction strategies, nutrition, animal welfare and farmer health and safety.
Teagasc is extremely fortunate to have an outstanding core of scientists, supported by top-class technical, farm, advisory, specialist and administration staff whose work contributes to our collective research outputs. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge our collaborators in universities, institutes of technology and other external bodies – including the farming community and agri-food companies – who are directly involved in many of our research projects. I would also like to highlight our Walsh Scholars and post-doctoral fellows, whose contribution to our ongoing research activities is invaluable.
Our research is funded through a variety of sources, including core grant-in-aid allocated via the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and competitive funding awarded nationally. Other important sources include competitive funding awarded from Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Irish Research Council, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Funding is also derived from farmer levy contributions and industry-funded research, as well as earnings from services offered and farming activities. Combined, these significant investments enable Teagasc to continue to support science-based advancements in the agri-food and bio-economy sectors that underpin profitability, competitiveness and sustainability.
Ensuring our research delivers real impact for our stakeholders is a key priority. To assess the impact of our research activities, we have developed a framework to guide the evaluation of our research. This framework (which can be found on page 15) provides a structure to describe how Teagasc’s activities contribute to impact in the agri-food sector through three interconnected impact pathways: technology development and adoption; capacity development; and policy influencing. You will find the relevant impact pathways listed with each of our research impacts as you read through this publication.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the dedication of my colleagues in Teagasc who were involved with, or supported, the research activities contained within this publication. The impact of Covid-19 across every sector of society cannot be underestimated; however, I am immensely proud of the continuous research outputs from Teagasc staff who diligently pushed forward over the last two years in spite of the unknown landscape that lay ahead. I also want to commend the role of our extensive research teams across the organisation, whose work has also made a substantial impact but was not included in our 2021 publication.
Thanks to the combined effort of all Teagasc staff, I am confident that we can continue to safeguard our role as the leading organisation in the field of agricultural, environmental and agrifood research in Ireland.
Pat Dillon
Director of Research, Teagasc
Research Impact Highlights 2021
View below research highlights from 2021 by programme/enterprise