A €104m investment in scientific research across Ireland has been announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan and Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

The funding is being allocated to four Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) research centres: BiOrbic Bioeconomy SFI research centre; FutureNeuro SFI research centre for neurological diseases; I-Form SFI research centre for advanced manufacturing; and VistaMilk SFI research centre. 

An additional €21m has been committed by these centres’ industry partners.

Support for dairy production

Minister McConalogue stated: “My Department is proud to commit over €8.7m in co-funding to the SFI research centre programme.

"Supporting VistaMilk SFI research centre over the next six years will help drive development and deployment of digital technology to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of dairy production and processing in Ireland.

"This progress will help to secure a sustainable food system that delivers safe and nutritious dairy products, positively impacts the environment and safeguards viable livelihoods for primary producers and rural communities.”

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heydon said that the Department of Agriculture has co-funded the VistaMilk centre since it first began in 2018.

"It has a strong focus on soil, pasture, animal and food research and this announcement will allow this collaboration to continue in phase two and I look forward to seeing the outputs of the research over the coming six years.”