Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 December 2020
62. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the way in which his Department has been working to increase awareness and take-up of opportunities in the bioeconomy sector including within the EU Bioeconomy Strategy (details supplied). [41484/20]
View answerThe Bio-economy 'High-level Implementation Group', jointly chaired by my Department and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has facilitated a number of key activities in 2020 to increase awareness and take-up of opportunities in the bioeconomy sector including in relation to the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. These included;
In October 2020, my Department, along with DECC led the 2nd National Bioeconomy Ireland Week 2020, an annual week-long event to highlight and raise awareness of Ireland’s rapidly growing bioeconomy . The events highlighted bioresources, terminology, technologies and biobased products already being used currently in Ireland’s bioeconomy. They also identified new primary production practices and industrial developments that highlight the role the bioeconomy will play in addressing climate neutrality.
In May 2020, my Department in collaboration with InterTradeIreland and the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute in Northern Ireland hosted an online event to promote and support engagement by Irish academia and industry in the EU Bioeconomy Research and Innovation Public Private partnership.
In February 2020, my Department along with the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and the Department of the Taoiseach hosted the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund at an event attended by over 150 stakeholders in Government Buildings to raise awareness of the steps being taken to launch the European Circular Bioeconomy Thematic Investment Platform which was subsequently successfully launched in October 2020.
Furthermore, my Department has successfully integrated the Bioeconomy into the DAFM Competitive Research Programme. This was demonstrated in the Department’s 2019 Call for Research Proposals where bioeconomy was present as a key research theme. This integration of bioeconomy into this programme resulted in significant grant awards for the following three successful projects being announced in October 2020 which will allow for the development of knowledge pathways for bioeconomy development in agriculture, food production and forestry. As this is a ‘public good’ programme a key component of all funded projects is widespread dissemination of the resulting findings for the benefit of all stakeholders.
- Agriculture: BioCrop for development of biobased alternatives such as biostimulants and biopesticides for crop production management.
- Food Systems: U-PROTEIN (Unlocking Protein Resource Opportunities To Evolve Ireland’s Nutrition) undertaking analysis and process development for the sustainable development of alternative sources of protein
- Forestry: NXTGENWOOD developing high value products such as polymers, chemicals and nutrients from forestry and, in particular, forestry residual materials.
