A trilateral partnership for supporting research and development has awarded over €73 million in funding to collaborative projects involving researchers from the Republic of Ireland, according to the latest figures from InterTradeIreland.
The US-Ireland R&D Partnership is an alliance between Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States of America that aims to increase the level of innovation and scientific progress amongst researchers and industry. Forty nine projects have been granted funding across key sectors including health, science and engineering, telecommunication energy and sustainability.
The Partnership was launched in 2006 and is led by a steering group of senior representatives from each jurisdiction, with InterTradeIreland providing the secretariat for the group on the island of Ireland.
The latest phase of the US-Ireland R&D Partnership aims to tackle global challenges facing the agri-food sector. The first project successful under the agricultural call was awarded in 2016 to the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in partnership with Teagasc and the University of Missouri – ‘Application of next generation sequencing for the identification of DNA based biomarkers in regulatory regions of the genome for susceptibility to bovine respiratory disease complex’.
Last year, almost €1million was issued to 3 successful agri projects with Republic of Ireland researchers. One such project, NAGpro - a collaboration between University College Cork (UCC), Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Tennessee - aims to improve animal husbandry through developing safe alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters.
Speaking about the milestone, International Funding and Collaborations Broker at InterTradeIreland, Grainne Lennon said, "Cross border initiatives such as this are essential if we are to facilitate real knowledge sharing and progress, particularly to tackle megatrend issues that can impact businesses and society globally. A highly competitive competition, partnerships need to be embedded in creativity and collaboration, and must demonstrate real value to secure support. "
She added, "Thankfully, the stats speak for themselves, and we are thrilled that so many local researchers are excelling in their respected fields to secure funding. Leveraging ground-breaking thinking both at home and internationally, the research being undertaken is truly world-leading and we look forward to seeing the advancements made by the latest projects."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
