The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for Research and Development, Martin Heydon, T.D., has encouraged Irish researchers to apply to the Horizon Europe Soil Mission Call.
The European Commission funds research to protect and restore soils in Europe through the ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission. The Mission recently launched its call for proposals and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, wants eligible Irish applicants to submit research proposals to this call, which has a total budget of €62 million.
Minister Heydon said: “Good soil health is critical in sequestering carbon, producing nutrient-dense food, supporting biodiversity, building resilience against climate change and much more besides. Food Vision 2030 sets out a range of actions that need to be taken to achieve these objectives and participating in this Horizon Europe Soil Mission is one such action.
“I therefore strongly encourage Irish researchers to submit applications to this significant research call and my Department, through its participation in the Irish support team, will help in any way it can to ensure strong Irish participation.”
The Soil Mission offers the Irish research community targeted funding opportunities in eight diverse areas including the social, economic and cultural factors driving land management, developing indicators for soil health and functions, and linking soil health to nutritional and safe food.
Minister Heydon added: “There are a wide range of research funding opportunities focused on Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment under Horizon Europe. Ireland was very successful in the previous Horizon 2020 programme and our aim is to build on this and increase participation and success in Horizon Europe.”
The Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission is currently open for applications. The deadline for submissions is March 24 2022 (17:00 CEST) with projects expected to commence in Circa November 2022.
Details of the Soil Deal for Europe mission can be found here and information about the various Mission work programmes can be found here.
