A €74 million investment to create new collaborative research centres across Ireland, Britain and Northern Ireland has been announced.
The new co-centres programme will open in November and will focus on two thematic areas — climate and sustainable and resilient food systems. It will bring together leading academic and industrial researchers, as well as policymakers across the three regions.
The programme will be managed by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The new programme will provide for an investment of €74m, funded through DAERA (up to £17m), SFI (€40m) and UKRI (£12m).
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“We have seen in recent years how important it is to invest in collaborative research and we are pleased to be able to support this ambitious new programme through the Government’s Shared Island initiative,” Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said.
“By working together, we can foster new research collaborations that are crucial to addressing both climate, and sustainable and resilient food systems, these are critical issues that impact on all of us.”
Professor Philip Nolan, director general at Science Foundation Ireland, said the research centres will address “major societal challenges in areas which are of global importance and vital to the future of our communities”.
“We look forward to launching the programme call in the coming weeks, and to funding outstanding large scale collaborative research with which will have real value and importance to our future,” he said.
