€2.2 million research funding for UN Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, and Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD, today announced €2.2 million funding for research projects that seek to address the global issues of hunger and food insecurity.
The Sustainable Development Goals Challenge is run in partnership with Irish Aid, and the six research projects receiving funding are focused on SDG 2: Zero Hunger. The research teams will develop a wide range of solutions that can contribute to ending hunger, achieving food security and promoting sustainable agriculture.
€2.2 million research funding for Zero Hunger
The projects include:
Empowering women farmers in Malawi to overcome the unique barriers they face and breakdown gender inequities in agriculture.
Leveraging and strengthening digital health systems in Uganda to tackle hunger, food access and malnutrition in vulnerable populations.
Ensuring that women from marginalized communities in Sub-Saharan Africa can access nutrient-rich meals, improving maternal-child health outcomes through Mobile health (mHealth) interventions.
Integrating indigenous knowledge with climate-smart agricultural technologies to build resilience in smallholder farming practices in Malawi.
Using AI to help farmers in Vietnam achieve high rice yields while preserving soil and saving water in the context of environmental and climate pressures.
Developing solar-powered crop processing machines for climate-resilient grain crops to decrease postharvest loss and increase productivity for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.
Minister James Lawless said:
“Today’s funding announcement reinforces Ireland’s commitment to implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. With over 700 million people continuing to face food insecurity and malnutrition globally, the research of these six teams can make a real and positive impact at an international level.
As these projects progress through collaboration with researchers in Irish Aid partner countries, they will work directly with those most impacted by the challenges they are addressing, delivering tangible solutions to significant societal challenges. I wish the teams every success over the coming months.”
Minister Neale Richmond said:
“Ireland is committed to creating a more equal and sustainable world. Investment in transforming global food systems is crucial to delivering on this commitment. Irish Aid’s ongoing partnership with Research Ireland is an important driver of innovative and transformational change. With this Challenge focused on the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger, the projects funded today will help us combat chronic hunger, under-nutrition and gender inequality for food systems transformation.”
Celine Fitzgerald, Interim CEO, Research Ireland, said:
“The SDG Challenge programme is an inspiring example of the power of international collaboration and strategic research funding. Challenge-based research funding encourages researchers to work directly with those most affected by the problems they seek to address and Research Ireland’s collaboration with Irish Aid has enabled truly international research partnerships.
Ireland has a whole-of-government approach to the implementation of the SDGs and the projects funded today are a leading example of this integrated commitment. I look forward to following the progress these teams make as they develop their research projects.”
The six projects represent international collaborations between research institutes in Ireland and in Irish Aid partner countries – in this case, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. The research teams funded today will have the opportunity to compete for an overall prize fund of €1 million for the most competitive team as part of this challenge-based funding programme.
The SDG Challenge Programme is a partnership between Research Ireland and Irish Aid (Department of Foreign Affairs), whose purpose is to support transformative, sustainable solutions to contribute to addressing development challenges in Irish Aid’s partner countries.
Challenge-based funding is a solution-focused approach to research funding that uses prizes, phases, defined timelines, teamwork, mentorship, and competition to direct research activity towards addressing pressing societal and economic problems.
The call opened on 16 May 2024 with a deadline for submissions of 8 October 2024. The challenge received 31 applications, and following a review process, six applications were subsequently funded.
The eligible partner countries for this call were Cambodia; Laos; Palestine; Vietnam; ODA-eligible country on the African continent; ODA-eligible Small Island Developing State (SIDS).
Teams receiving funding are as follows:
Teams (alphabetically by lead researcher):
Professor Supriya Garikipati, University College Dublin; co-Lead Professor Kevin McDonnell, University College Dublin; partner country co-lead Dr John Okoth Omondi, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Malawi; Societal Impact Champion Dr Richard Petautchere, National Association of Smallholder Farmers:
EMPOWER-ME – Empowering Malawian Women Farmers through Precision Agriculture and Market E-Linkages.
Dr Quan Le, University College Dublin; co-lead Dr Anh Vu Vo, University College Dublin; partner country co-lead Dr Pham Dang Tri Van, Can Tho University, Vietnam; Societal Impact Champion Dr Thi Long Trinh, Southern Institute for Water Resources Research, Vietnam:
AiRRVie – AI for Climate Resilient Rice Farming in Vietnam
Dr Catherine Phillips, University College Dublin; co-lead Professor Fionnnuala McAuliffe, University College Dublin; partner country co-lead Professor Livhuwani Muthelo, University of Limpopo, South Africa:
AMEN – Personalised mHealth Maternal Nutritional Education for Equitable Nutritional Access and Improved Maternal and Offspring Health Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Adwoa Serwaa Ofori, University College Dublin; co-lead Dr Karen Keaveney, University College Dublin; partner country co-lead Professor Miriam Kalanda-Joshua, University of Malawi; Societal Impact Champion Dr Andrew Jamali, National Planning Commission:
SANKOFA – ReSilient climate smArt agriculture, iNdigenous Knowledge and traditiOn For sustAinable food production.
Dr Nilushni Sivapragasam, University College Cork; partner country co-lead Professor Lesley Macheka, Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Zimbabwe; Societal Impact Champion Ms Rosemary Cumanzala, Zubo Trust:
Mechanization and sustainable processing of climate-resilient cereal grains in Zimbabwe’s arid areas to ensure food and nutrition security.
Professor Audrey Tierney, University of Limerick; co-lead Dr Katie Crowley, University of Limerick; partner country co-lead Professor Benjamin Kanagwa, Makerere University, Uganda; Societal Impact Champion Mr Muhanguzi Denis Kaffoko, GOAL:
IGNITE – Health System Strengthening: Implementing DiGital Health SolutioNs for Food and NutrITion SEcurity in Underdeveloped Countries.
See more breaking stories here.
March 11, 2025 at 10:01AM
https://irishtechnews.ie/e2-2-million-research-funding-for-zero-hunger/
Simon Cocking