Ministers announce move to scale-up all-island bioeconomy with €9m in seed funding

Moves to create a bioeconomy across the island of Ireland, exploiting agriculture and marine resources in a sustainable way, have been announced with support funding of €9 million.

The Shared Island Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative was launched by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, and Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, Andrew Muir, on Wednesday.

The bioeconomy encompasses sectors using biological resources from land and sea in a sustainable way, ranging across agriculture, horticulture, forestry, food processing, construction, packaging, chemicals and organic waste sectors.

The initiative will pilot and demonstrate opportunities on an all-island basis from biomass produced from land and marine areas, and development of innovative, biobased products and solutions that also deliver clear climate and environmental benefits.

This is likely to yield new sources of protein; starch, fibres, nutrients and “bioactives” that offer diversification opportunities for primary producers, Mr McConalogue said. It may also enable the upcycling of food processing waste and development of “high-value biobased products to support a circular food system”.

“The bioeconomy has significant potential to improve the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the agri-food and marine sector by offering diversification opportunities, new bio-based business products and value chains, while reducing the use of fossil-based inputs,” he added.

The initiative provides significant funding for primary producers, businesses, and innovators to work together to demonstrate new scalable, commercial bioeconomy solutions across the island of Ireland.

Mr Muir said it was a great opportunity for innovators “to co-operate with the aim of providing concrete and demonstrated examples of biobased innovation to help drive economic, environmental and social benefits as well as support climate change mitigation and adaptation”.

The Government has allocated €7 million from its Shared Island Initiative, with co-funding of €1.5 million from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and £0.5 million from the North’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

As cross-Border collaboration will be required, InterTrade Ireland are supporting both departments to help applicants in finding partners through offering an online partnering platform and supporting the hosting of in-person networking events.