Funding awarded for strategic research in generational renewal and pig health
Two Teagasc researchers have been awarded funding to further their work in the respective areas of generational renewal and pig health as part of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s Policy and Strategic Studies Research Call.
Emma Dillion, an Economist and Senior Research Officer with the Teagasc Agricultural Economics and Farm Surveys Department has been granted funding for the GEN FARMS project, which explores the dynamic interplay between gender, age, and their influence on farm sustainability and innovation.
Some, but not all, of this project’s key goals are to: assess the current involvement of women and younger people in Irish agriculture; examine the influence of women and younger people on farm performance – to include economic viability, investment and environmental sustainability; and to analyse the role of gender and generational renewal on the uptake of innovative and sustainable practices and new technologies, and their impact on farm sustainability.
Under the same research call, Edgar Manzanilla, Principal Research Officer and Head of Pig Development Department at Teagasc, has been awarded funding on estimating the animal health losses in the Irish pig sector using the methodology of the Global Burden of Animal Diseases project – a recently launched initiative to establish a consistent framework for estimating the economic impact of animal disease.
The awarding of funding to the Teagasc researchers came as part of a wider announcement by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for research and development, Martin Heydon T.D., who announced awards of over €800,000 for six short-term projects that look at emerging policy and strategic needs of the agri-food, forest and bioeconomy sectors.
Speaking on the announcement of the awards for the 2023 call, Minister Heydon said the funding for the six projects “will contribute to informing public policy across a number of areas”.
Meanwhile, Minister Heydon also announced the opening of the 2024 Policy and Strategic Studies Research Call.
Commenting on this, Heydon said: “The 2024 call for proposals under my Department’s Policy and Strategic Studies research instrument is now open. A total of 28 topics are available for researchers to apply to, ranging from animal health and welfare, food safety and biosecurity, to forest management and health, soil health, climate mitigation and food waste, among others. I strongly encourage our world class research community to examine this Call and to take advantage of the opportunity to conduct research which can directly influence public policy for the benefit of the agri-food, forest and bioeconomy sectors.”
Also read: Teagasc researchers awarded funding for sustainable agriculture research