Research Impact Highlights
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Go to 2020 Research Impact Highlights
The annual expenditure on research in Teagasc is approximately €75 million, which comes from a variety of sources. These include the core grant-in-aid funding allocated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), and competitive funding awarded nationally – principally, the competitive research call of the DAFM. Other important national sources are Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Irish Research Council.
In recent years, our researchers have been very active in winning funding from international programmes such as EU Horizon 2020 and the new Horizon Europe programme. Indeed, in comparison with all other research organisations and universities across Europe, Teagasc is ranked fifth for total number of projects securing European Commission funding in the agri-food area since 2014. Farmer levy contributions, industry-funded research and earnings from services offered and farming activities also provide very important funding.
Given the Teagasc mission to provide scientific leadership and support to Irish farmers and food companies in achieving a sustainable food system, it is very important to demonstrate the impact of this investment. In any given year, the impact of Teagasc research is a combination of the continuing impact of past research and the new impact of recent research. This publication highlights some of these new impacts achieved in 2020.
The examples selected are from across our programme and include research conducted on issues in soils and the environment, animal production, crop production, food processing, food and health, economics and social science. They are not an exhaustive account of the new impacts of Teagasc’s research, but they do demonstrate the breadth of research carried out by Teagasc. The impacts are made in a range of areas including livestock and crop production (including horticulture), the food industry, and shaping policy.
Achieving impact requires not just the research, but also the work of our advisors, specialists and education officers, and I am convinced it is when all the resources of Teagasc are brought to bear on an issue that we are a powerful force for change. We also rely on experts in other organisations, industry, farmers, food companies and policymakers. Having a range of these actors involved, who ultimately make the changes in what they do based at least in part on our research, greatly helps the achievement of impact.
I wish to commend my colleagues in Teagasc who carried out the research reported here or supported it in some way, and other researchers whose work also had impact but is not included in these 20 examples.
I would also like to acknowledge the many collaborators we have in universities, institutes of technology and other external bodies, as well as the farming community and agri-food companies, which are directly involved in many of our research projects. We greatly value those contributions. Finally, I would like to thank the funders of the research listed above. I believe their investment will pay rich dividends across the agri-food industry, the wider economy and environment and Irish society over the coming years.
Frank O’Mara Teagasc Director
Research Impact Highlights 2020
View below research highlights from 2020 by pprogramme/enterpprise