SEAI National Energy Research Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Funding Programme 2026

The overarching objectives of the SEAI National Energy Research Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Funding Programme are as follows:

• Accelerate the development and deployment in the Irish marketplace of competitive energy-related products, processes and systems;
• Support solutions that enable technical and other barriers to energy market uptake to be overcome; 
• Grow Ireland's national capacity to access, develop and apply international class energy RD&D; 
• Provide guidance and support to policy makers and public bodies through results, outcomes and learning from supported projects.

SEAI’s National Energy RD&D Funding Programme supports innovative and targeted actions which assist in delivery of the Climate Action Plan, the Programme for Government, the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, Project 2040 Ireland, Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy, the DCEE Statement of Research and Innovation Needs 2026-2028, Ireland’s National Energy & Climate Plan (NECP), the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill (2021) and the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan as relevant to SEAI’s remit.

Accelerating transformative research to deliver Ireland’s clean energy and climate ambitions will require enhanced collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders and actors. Diverse approaches and engaged research methods will be required. The SEAI National Energy RD&D Funding Programme welcomes research proposals from all research disciplines, as well as collaborative projects involving multiple organisations, and multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches, subject to alignment with the overall programme objectives.

The programme provides the opportunity for applicants to submit proposals to either an Open Strand or a Research Priority Strand (see Annex 1 of this Call Document for further details). The Open Strand provides an opportunity for applicants to pitch ideas for research proposals that are within SEAI’s remit and that meet the above outlined programme objectives. The Research Priority Strand (Annex 1) includes areas which have been identified as current national priority areas for research. Applications to both the Open and Research Priority Strand compete with each other for funding.

For more information, visit the website or access the call document.