Minister Creed Announces Selection of 19 Projects for the Next Phase of the European Innovation Partnerships Initiative

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., today announced the results of the second Open Call competitive process to select proposals to proceed to Round 2 of the European Innovation Partnerships Initiative (EIP).  A total of 19 projects were successfully shortlisted to move to the next stage of the process.

The Minister commented “I am delighted to see the EIP progressing to this next phase which provides an important opportunity to respond to challenges in our sector in a new way. The proposals received in response to this call are of a very high quality and a clear indication that the EIP initiative is recognised in the rural economy as a very useful approach to addressing challenges in a collaborative and innovative way.

The Minister added “The 19 projects which have been selected to progress to the next phase will now be funded to develop a detailed project plan for their projects. A number of these proposals will then be selected to move forward to the full implementation phase. ”

The EIP forms part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014–2020, and is centred on groups coming together to develop and implement their innovative ideas for how they propose to address challenges they have identified.

Support for this element of the EIP is structured around a competitive fund, whereby an open call for proposals addressing key challenges in the agri-food sector was put in place.    In effect, there are two streams within this call which will be administered via the same process throughout.   The first stream is focused on themes such as farm viability, economic performance, sustainable forest management, and innovative technologies. The second stream is focused on challenges related to environmental, biodiversity and climate change issues.

The Minister added “I am delighted to see that the EIP proposals successful at this stage of the process seek to address a wide range of challenges in the sector and align closely with broader Department and sectoral policy particularly on the big environmental challenges especially climate change.

Minister Creed concluded by saying “The level of innovation being proposed in tackling the issue of climate change across these projects is very encouraging. Other successful projects include targeting flood management, pollinators, reducing the carbon footprint of intensive pig production, water quality, invasive species, lean dairy operation, and a number of biodiversity challenges”.

Note for Editors:

• Round 1 of this competitive process started in August 2017 with an initial call for proposals using a simple application form. 
• All proposals have now been evaluated by a selection committee with reference to criteria such as value for money, relevance to the EIP programme, and compatibility with Rural Development Priorities. 
• This generated a shortlist of 19 applicants chosen to go forward to Round 2, and these will be funded to prepare detailed project plans. Following assessment of these detailed project plans, a final shortlist will be drawn up for implementation on the ground.
• An overall funding package of €24 million has been allocated to support EIPs under two separate calls, the successful applicants under Open Call 1 are about to move to implementation stage.   
• Information on the European Innovation Partnership initiative can be accessed on the Department website at www.agriculture.gov.ie or by contacting eip@agriculture.gov.ie

Stream	Team Name	Name of Project/Theme	County
A	Positive AMR Action	Finding the opportunities in Antibiotic Usage information	Waterford
A	Lean Dairy Operation Group – led by Macra na Feirme	Lean-on Farm - Promote labour efficient practices on dairy farms	31 Macra na Feirme Regions
A	Blackcastle Forage and Farm Group	Improving the inter-farm trading of forages and grasses for all	North Offaly Westmeath
A	Irish Woodflow Measurement Standards Group	Develop National Standards for Measuring Woodflow from Irish Forests	Countrywide
B	Inishowen Upland Farmers	A whole farm approach to landscape management	Inishowen, Donegal
B	Mulkear Integrated Catchment Management Partnership	On Farm Technology Transfer to Enhance Water Quality in the Mulkear Catchment	Limerick and Tipperary
B	Carbery Group	Small scale Farmer-led green biorefineries	South West
B	Sustainable Pig Farm Operational Group	Perma Pigs Sustainable Farm Model	Louth
B	National Biodiversity Data Centre	Protecting Farmland Pollinators	South County Kildare
B	Ballingeary Flood Committee	Feasibility of Integrated catchment food and water quality solutions	Co. Cork
B	Multispecies Grassland Project Group	Forages for Sustainable Ruminant Production Systems	Meath and Wicklow
B	Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha Ctr (LAN)	Culra Creafoige	North Donegal
B	IRD Duhallow.	River Allow Catchment Management Group	North Cork
B	Irish BioEnergy Association (IrBEA)	Small Biogas Demonstration Programme	Nationwide
B	Rathcroghan Resource Centre	Sustainable farming in the Rathcroghan Archaeological Landscape	Roscommon
B	Comhar na nOilean Farming Sub Group	Islands’ Farming Futures	Islands of Donegal, Mayo and Cork
B	Caherdaniel Japanese Knotweed group	Coiste Pobail Cathair Donall	Co. Kerry
B	Cooley Uplands Group	Cooley Uplands Regeneration	Co. Louth
B	Forum Connemara Operational Group	North West Connemara Locally Led Scheme	Galway/Mayo

ENDS

Date Released: 14 February 2018