Funding has been announced for four new European Innovation Partnership (EIP) projects across the themes of animal health and gender balance in farming in Ireland.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Minister of State Senator Pippa Hackett confirmed the funding for the four projects.

Of the EIPs selected from the recent open call, three will cover animal health and welfare issues, while one will focus on gender in agriculture.

Commenting on the announcement, Minister McConalogue said that EIPs are an excellent channel for encouraging innovation in Irish farming and rural areas.

“This model respects and recognises local conditions, local needs and the particular nature of agricultural activity in different areas and, in so doing, they continue to contribute greatly to the vitality of Ireland’s rural communities.”

Projects

One project will be trialling measures to address tail biting in pigs, with the ambition of enabling the rearing of pigs with intact tails in Ireland.

The second will be implementing actions aimed at enhancing suckler cow health in high nature value areas, focusing on the Burren.

The last of these projects will be taking a multi-disciplinary approach to lameness control on Irish farms.

Under gender balance, the successful project aims to address the needs of women on farms in relation to working with machinery and livestock.

Minister Hackett said this funding will enable the successful operational groups to proceed with practical, on-the-ground implementation.

“As we all know, there are many challenges in farming today and the EIP model is designed to facilitate innovation and collaboration in tackling these challenges, by bringing a wide range of stakeholders together to pool their resources and ideas and to develop solutions.

“In that regard, I have recently launched a call for EIP projects on generational renewal and digital technologies and I would encourage operational groups to submit expressions of interest and be innovative in their approach. I also intend to launch a new call on environmental sustainability in the coming weeks, further details of which will follow soon,” she added.