MUNSTER Technological University (MTU) has secured major competitive research funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) across research projects focused on sustainability, food systems, public health and the circular bioeconomy.
The funding forms part of the Government’s €37.5 million national investment in research for the agri-food, forest and bioeconomy sectors, announced by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon TD and Minister of State Noel Grealish TD.
The successful MTU-led and MTU-partnered projects will support the development of new value chains for Irish agriculture, provide evidence to shape future nutrition and food policy, and help unlock sustainable uses for an underutilised natural resource.
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MTU has secured €3 million to lead the national Grass4Value project, which will develop cutting-edge green biorefinery technologies aimed at transforming Ireland’s grassland sector.
The project brings together a group of leading institutions including MTU, University College Dublin (UCD), Teagasc and University of Galway and will connect several demonstration and pilot-scale bioeconomy facilities across the country, including MTU’s pilot biorefinery facility in Kerry.
Grass4Value will focus on converting grass and legumes into high-value products including sustainable protein alternatives, animal feed ingredients, bioenergy and fertilisers. The project will also explore opportunities for developing functional food ingredients from grass-based feedstocks.
Dr Janette Walton, Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences and Head of the NutRI Research Group at MTU, has been awarded €1.5 million to lead the new National Children’s Food Survey III.
In collaboration with UCD and TU Dublin, the study will examine the diets, eating behaviours and nutritional intake of school-aged children across Ireland, collecting detailed data on food consumption, together with lifestyle factors, body weight measurements and urine samples in school-aged children aged 5-12 years in the Republic of Ireland.
The Centre for Applied Bioscience Research (CABR) at MTU, in collaboration with University College Cork (UCC), secured DAFM funding for a research project focused on unlocking the full potential of Irish wool.
The project will address a key barrier to innovation in the wool sector: defining appropriate cleanliness or “limit levels” for wool, tailored to its end use. The initiative aims to support more sustainable wool processing methods while creating new opportunities for farmers, manufacturers and rural enterprise.
