Welcome to the informational webinar on
the U.S.-Ireland Research and Development
Partnership.
My name is Jaime Adams, Senior Advisor to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief
Scientist and I have the pleasure of
being your host today.
Joining me today are Mark Mirando from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture
National Institute of Food and
Agriculture,
John Harrison and Aidan Holohan from the
Department of Agriculture, Food and the
Marine,
and Gabrielle Sharkey and Paul Devine
from the Department of Agriculture,
Environment,
and Rural Affairs. This partnership is a
unique funding mechanism only available
to researchers collaborating across
these three jurisdictions, the United
States, the Republic of Ireland,
and Northern Ireland.
A brief overview of the webinar schedule.
During this webinar, we'll introduce
leadership of the respective agencies,
briefly cover the history of the
partnership, provide an overview of the
application process including specific
steps to this program, and we'll
introduce the current priorities and end
on a Q&A session.
Next, I welcome Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young,
the acting Chief Scientist of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
Bill Callanan, Chief Inspector of the
Republic of Ireland Department of
Agriculture, Food and the Marine,
and Alistair Carson, Chief Scientific
Advisor of the Northern Ireland
Department of Agriculture, Environment
and Rural Affairs to provide opening
remarks.
Dr. Jacobs-Young, over to you.
USDA is pleased to continue agricultural
research and development collaboration
under the U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership.
Through collaboration and cooperation, we
can continue working together to solve
some of the global challenges facing
agriculture.
Thank you for those remarks. Next we'll
have
Chief Inspector Bill Callanan.
For the Department of Agriculture, Food
and the Marine in Ireland
and on behalf of our research community,
it is a privilege to continue our
involvement
and be part of this unique international
agriculture research call
under the US-Ireland Research and
Development Partnership.
This partnership strengthens the link of
cooperation and friendship
with our neighbors near and far, and this
combines with the scientific rigor and
excellence of our research teams so that
we can deliver innovative solutions
that will address some of the greatest
challenges now facing the agri-food
sectors
in all three countries.
Thank you so much. And now to
Chief Scientific Advisor, Alistair Carson.
On behalf of DAERA, I am pleased to support
the continuation of this successful
tripartite Partnership
with our colleagues in the United States
and Ireland.
Research and innovation are key to help
inform Government policy
and in underpinning competitiveness by
providing
strong foundations for long-term
viability and success.
In DAERA, we recognise the importance of
collaboration to solve the global
problems facing agriculture and we look
forward to this Program
growing and evolving in the coming years
to meet the ever-changing challenges
we face together.
Wonderful. I appreciate the time so much
by
our leadership for giving these opening
remarks.
Thank you again. Next we will go to the
history of the partnership.
Launched in 2006, the US-Ireland
Research and Development Partnership
links researchers
across the Republic of Ireland, Northern
Ireland, and the United States
to accelerate economic development and
cooperation across
borders by encouraging trilateral
research collaboration.
To date, 65 projects have been funded
with over 125 million dollars across
various research areas. Funding has been
primarily coordinated in the United
States through the National Institutes
of Health
and the National Science Foundation, and
now includes the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Partnership research areas include cyber-
security, health,
nanoscale science and engineering,
sensors and sensor networks,
telecommunications, energy and
sustainability, and now
agriculture.
In 2015, USDA, DAFM, and DAERA launched a
five-year pilot program for research to
help solve global
agriculture-related issues. During those
five years,
approximately 7.1 million dollars in
funding was awarded to six projects
across 11 institutions
with partners from USDA, DAFM, and DAERA
each funding their own researchers.
Following a review and successful
conclusion of the pilot program,
agriculture intends to continue as a
priority area
under the partnership.
As a brief summary of the awards that
occurred
under the pilot program, the six projects
funded during the pilot
represent critical research for global
agriculture challenges
such as enhancing resistance to bovine
tuberculosis,
therapy to improve pig health,
and a new disease diagnosis platform for
cattle.
These projects are successfully
leveraging resources and connections
available
through this partnership between the
United States, Republic of Ireland,
and Northern Ireland.
Next, we will review the application
process
and eligibility, as this program has some
unique steps and considerations in
addition
to the normal process.
The application process largely follows
the NIFA
AFRI process with a few additional steps
unique to this program.
NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research
Initiative,
AFRI, is the program that is utilized.
Applications must be submitted to
DAFM and DAERA
four weeks in advance of NIFA's AFRI
Request for Applications deadline.
This deadline varies depending on which
program you are applying to.
DAFM and DAERA will do an
eligibility check mainly to ensure
strategic
alignment and that financial and
administrative requirements are met.
If DAFM and DAERA support the proposal, a
funding commitment letter is provided
for inclusion
in the full proposal to NIFA. A copy will
also be sent directly to NIFA.
The U.S. partner submits the tripartite
proposal
to NIFA by the AFRI due date.
Once received there is an assigned
application number,
a copy of this number must be sent to
DAFM and DAERA.
The proposals are then evaluated
alongside other applications in the
selected
program area.
Eligibility. Eligibility has a few
additional requirements beyond the
typical
AFRI application. In addition to being an
eligible research body, which we will cover
in the next slide, there must be a
principal investigator or project
director from each country.
The U.S. partner is responsible for the
submission to NIFA.
the grant request for each must account
for at least 15% of the
overall to ensure active participation
by each partner.
Proposals should avoid duplication of
work already undertaken.
Eligible research bodies. Eligible
research bodies on the U.S. side include
Agricultural Experiment Stations,
colleges and universities, university
research foundations,
federal agencies such as the
Agricultural Research Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, and national
labs.
Private organizations and corporations
are also eligible and have received
funding during the pilot program.
Also illustrated on this slide are the
eligible institutions from Northern
Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland has three potential
partners-
Queens University Belfast, Ulster
University,
and the Agri-Food and Biosciences
Institute.
The Republic of Ireland has several eligible
universities, institutes, and research
organizations including those noted on
this slide.
Why you should apply. Although
partnership proposals compete
head-to-head with the non-US-Ireland
partnership
proposals submitted to the same request
for application,
the competitive advantage comes from the
additive nature of the collaboration
as well as leveraging additional funding
sources. USDA funding is up to 500
thousand to a million dollars
depending on the AFRI program.
DAFM offers up to 350,000 Euro
and DAERA up to 250,000 pounds.
You could, of course, work with
international collaborators on a typical
grant;
however this program offers dedicated
funding for your international partners.
Next, we’ll go over some additional
information
for the 2022 request for applications.
As under the agricultural pilot,
there were six program areas for 2021
that are now being continued in 2022.
These include: Pests and Beneficial
Species, Animal Nutrition, Growth, and
Lactation,
Welfare and Well-being of Agricultural
Animals,
Diseases of Agricultural Animals, Animal
Breeding and Functional Annotation of
Genomes,
and Mitigating Antimicrobial Resistance
Across the Food Chain.
On this slide you can now see also the
deadlines that are upcoming
next year for 2022 AFRI
application deadlines for these program
priority areas.
Also for 2022 we are pleased to announce
that we will be doubling the number of
priority
program areas that are eligible for
application
and we'll have deadlines in late summer
and early fall next
year.
These six new priority areas
include: Sustainable Bioeconomy through
Biobased Products,
Sustainable Agroecosystems, Bioprocessing
and Bioengineering,
Agricultural Microbiomes in Plant
Systems and Natural Resources,
Inter-disciplinary Engagement in Animal
Systems,
and Data Science for Food and
Agriculture Systems.
We are excited for the opportunities
that lie ahead,
especially given this increase in
the program priority areas that are now
eligible,
all now listed on this slide.
Applications for 2022 are now being
accepted!
Later this year the request for
application will be updated to reflect
the new priority areas.