Teagasc has welcomed the announcement that researchers and companies in Ireland have won a total of €274.7 million in funding from the EU Horizon 2020 programme for research projects. The Horizon 2020 programme is an EU programme to support research and innovation across the European Union.
Horizon 2020 reflects the policy priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy and addresses major concerns shared by citizens in Europe and elsewhere.
The Higher Education system in Ireland accounted for €172.5 million of this total and companies secured €79.2 million, including €54.3 million for SMEs.
The European Commission has pioneered a new type of project in agri-food area, known as “Thematic Networks”. These networks take the results of recent research projects and collate and disseminate them in a usable format for farmers across Europe. In the 2016 call, five thematic networks will be funded by the European commission, and Teagasc is a partner in all five funded networks.
Dr. Frank O’Mara, Director of Research in Teagasc commented “We are particularly pleased with Teagasc success in applications for thematic networks. The concept of turning excellent research results into innovation on Irish farms is central to Teagasc’s mission and aligns closely with the Irish Government’s Innovation 2020 strategy which aims to make Ireland a global innovation leader. Thematic networks allow Teagasc to exploit our synergistic activities of research, innovation and knowledge transfer.”
