Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 July 2026
17. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline the funding announced under the Agriculture and Climate Joint Research and Technology Initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52133/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am pleased to inform the Deputy that my Department has launched the 2026 Call for Proposals under the Ireland and New Zealand Agriculture and Climate Joint Research and Technology Initiative.
Ireland and New Zealand share many similarities as leading pasture-based livestock producing nations. Both countries face common challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture while maintaining productive and sustainable farming systems.
Under this Call, my Department is committing €3 million to research projects, which is being matched by the New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries, bringing the total funding available to €6 million. This funding will support collaborative research projects involving Irish researchers working in partnership with their New Zealand counterparts.
The funding is important because it will help advance, and where necessary accelerate, the development, validation and implementation of mitigation technologies that can contribute to national and international climate objectives. The initiative allows us to combine expertise, research capacity and resources, to help ensure that research findings can be translated into real-world outcomes for farmers and policymakers.
Besides bringing our researchers together in a formal way, a further key advantage of this initiative is the ability to support larger and more ambitious projects than would be possible through national funding alone. By combining resources from both countries, up to €6 million can be invested in a single project or across two substantial projects, allowing researchers to undertake work at a scale capable of delivering meaningful results and greater impact to address our shared climate challenges more effectively.
This initiative builds on the success of the previous Ireland and New Zealand research partnership and demonstrates Ireland’s continued commitment to supporting high-quality international research that benefits our agricultural sector, our climate ambitions and our rural communities.
