Projects geared towards the bio-based economy across the island of Ireland can now apply for grants under a €9m funding call announced jointly by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Northern Ireland minister for agriculture Andrew Muir.

The call has been pitched as offering diversification opportunities for farmers and fishers through innovations, such as those which provide new sources of protein, starch, fibres and nutrients.

The bio-based economy includes activities which conserve, process or distribute resource in sectors including farming, forestry, food processing, construction, chemicals and organic waste.

Some €7m in funding was provided under Government’s Shared Island Initiative, alongside a further €1.5m from the Department of Agriculture and £0.5m from DAERA in NI.

The Shared Island Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative is to pilot the bio-based economy in action, as had been identified as a key objective of the bioeconomy action plan for 2023 to 2025.

Potential

“The bio[-based] economy has significant potential to improve the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the agri-food and marine sector by offering diversification opportunities, new bio-based business products and value chains, while reducing the use of fossil-based inputs,” Minister McConalogue said.

“This new Shared Island Initiative provides significant funding for primary producers, businesses and innovators to work together to demonstrate new scaleable, commercial bio[-based] economy solutions for the agri-food and marine sectors across the island of Ireland.”

NI’s farming minister Andrew Muir welcomed the funding call as a “great opportunity for innovators to co-operate” and demonstrate innovations which help drive “economic, environmental and social benefits”.

Applications must be submitted online before noon on 7 June and information meetings will be held on the funding call on 22 March at Dundalk Institute of Technology and 19 April at AFBI Hillsborough.