Our Story

First for Ireland with new Innovation Action funded by Circular Biobased Europe Joint Undertaking

Bioeconomy Demonstration project wins big!

In a world grappling with the urgent need for sustainable practices, the €8.7 million “Rural BioReFarmeries” project emerges as a beacon of hope. While it is coordinated by MTU,  Liz Gavin and her dynamic team at NuaFund, supported the writing of this grant application and beat off competition from across Europe, while securing a maximum score in its evaluation. This ground-breaking initiative promises to revolutionize the bio economy landscape in Europe. With a primary focus on farm-centred bio economy approaches, the project aims to deploy green biorefineries across the grassland regions of Europe.

Collaboration and Innovation

The project is a collaborative effort involving 19 partners from 8 countries, including prominent institutions like Munster Technological University, Aarhus University, University College Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin. The involvement of diverse partners such as Carbery Group, NuaFund, Carbon Harvesters, and Barryroe Cooperative ensures a multidisciplinary approach to tackling the challenges of sustainable agriculture.

Innovative Decentralized Approach

The core objective of the “Rural BioReFarmeries” project is its decentralized approach, where biorefining activities begin on the farm. This involves the smart production and harvesting of sustainable local biomass, combined with decentralized processing near the farm. The co-products from these biorefineries are then transferred centrally to downstream sites for further development, enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of the entire process.

This will be achieved through the establishment of green biorefineries in Ireland and Denmark, optimizing the conversion of local grasses, clover, and green biomass residues into valuable products. These products include human and animal-grade protein, bio-based food packaging, flavours, anti-microbials, fertilizers, and energy.

By working closely with primary producers in the dairy and pig sectors, the project aims to create new value chains and replicable business models. This collaboration extends to upstream industries involved in food and flavour, animal nutrition, packaging, microalgae, and fertilizers, ensuring a holistic approach to sustainability.

Funding The Future

NuaFund played a pivotal role in the proposal preparation, co-coordinating with MTU’s James Gaffey and drafting the successful funding application. As a partner in this four-year project, NuaFund is committed to working with partners including farmers and reporting on its progress alongside the consortium. This collaborative effort will help Ireland play a significant role in this first-time funded ‘Innovation Action’ from the CBE JU, a notoriously difficult grant to secure.

A Visionary Leader: Liz Gavin

Liz Gavin, the driving force behind NuaFund, not only brings her extensive knowledge in bioeconomy to this 4 year project, but also her deep understanding of EU funding mechanisms. Her expertise in navigating complex funding landscapes was crucial in the funding success for the “Rural BioReFarmeries” project. Reflecting on this achievement, Liz says:

“Seven years ago, NuaFund started with the idea to support researchers and businesses in accessing funding, in particular in the areas of Bioeconomy and Sustainable Agriculture. I am thrilled with this accomplishment, a maximum score in the evaluation, and grateful to my team for helping to make this happen. Securing funding for this  Innovation Action is a first for Ireland, and we are proud to be part of it.”

A Brighter Future for Primary production on-farm

“Rural BioReFarmeries” represents a transformative leap in sustainable agriculture. The project will work intensively with primary producer partners on the ground, including within the dairy and pig sectors, while also linking these farms to upstream industries (e.g., food and flavour, animal nutrition, packaging, microalgae, fertilisers) creating new value chains and replicable business models and training activities which will be transferred across rural regions of Europe. By optimizing grassland resources, this project aims to create a more efficient, circular, and sustainable bio economy in Europe.

NuaFund is proud to support this promising path forward, showcasing the profound impact of dedicated leadership, excellent research and evidence-based pathways, while enabling collaborative innovation. The work of partners on this project will demonstrate how visionary projects can drive significant advancements in sustainability, paving the way for a brighter, more sustainable future for all.

Circular Economy

Highly competitive funding

FPD Recycling received support from NuaFund throughout all stages of their successful application to the very competitive European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme in 2022. The EIC Accelerator Programme is a funding program under Horizon Europe that supports innovative, game-changing products, services, or business models that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe or globally. The programme provides grant funding of up to €2.5 million combined with an equity investment ranging up to €15 million in a blended finance offer. NuaFund provided services such as proposal writing and review, full proposal submission support, pitch preparation, and training to FPD Recycling throughout all stages of the application. In October 2022, it was announced that FPD Recycling, a clean-tech AI robotics company, was among only 7% of companies from over 1000 companies across Europe who were successfully awarded funding under this very competitive programme. More information on this solution here.

Encircle

Embrace Farm - Supporting Farm Families affected by Farm accidents in Ireland

In 2021, Embrace Farm – the farm accident support network, contacted us to seek support to prepare and submit an application for European Innovations Partnership (EIP) funding for their ‘Encircle’ project. Funding was awarded funding following our input and recommendations on how to craft the application. The aim of this Encircle project is to support farm families in the aftermath of a sudden accident or trauma on the family farm. The programme aims to address the gap in rural services by providing a structured single point of contact access to local professional and peer-to-peer supports to families and communities affected by sudden trauma on farms. During 2022 and 2023, we were delighted to be able to work with Embrace FARM by supporting them in the project management of the planning, launch and full implementation of this very worthwhile programme. Since the programme launched over 150 farm families throughout Ireland have been supported and assisted by the Encircle Project. More information here

Safe Habitus

Health and Safety of Farmers and Farm Workers

The Safe Habitus project involves a network of researchers, farm advisory services and educators, who are working with farmers and policy makers at national and EU levels to design, develop and test practical initiatives that support improvements in the safety, health and wellbeing of farmers and farm workers. The actions by a range of stakeholders involves empowering and supporting changes to unsafe practices and to adopting new, safer and healthier ways of working on Farms and feed into the EU transition to social sustainability in farming. Since this grant was awarded, we have taken on the role of Project Managers and work closely with the consortium on a daily basis. We are excited to be part of this change-making project supporting European farmers and policy makers – more information here.

RefreSCAR

Strategy for Agricultural Research

RefreSCAR a Horizon Europe funded project under Cluster 6 and it aims to support agricultural research. The Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) is a coordination and advisory body on European agricultural and bioeconomy research.

NuaFund helped the coordinator , throughout the proposal submission process and we are working as consortium members in supporting a work package on Project Management. Through this project, we are involved in 2 main actions:

1. facilitating the administrative processes and meetings;
2. financial reporting (in line with operational outcomes);

More Information here

Grass Ceiling

Gender Equality in Rural and Agricultural Innovation Systems

Grass Ceiling is funded through Cluster 6 of the Horizon Europe programme. It is a multi-actor project which aims to empower rural women and increase the number of socio-ecological innovations led by women in agriculture, the rural economy and rural communities. The GRASS Ceiling project is coordinated by South East Technological University, Ireland (SETU). The project involves women innovators on farms and rural areas who will participate in 9 socio-ecological women innovator living labs across 9 case study countries in Europe and the UK. The Living Labs are women-led with interactive innovation initiatives that will increase knowledge and provide tools to assist women innovators and policy and support organizations at Member State and EU levels. More information on this project here.

NuaFund helped the coordinators, SETU, throughout the proposal submission process and we are working as consortium members in supporting a work package on Project Management and involved in 3 main actions:

1. monitoring technical reporting together with the Project coordinator
2. facilitating the administrative processes and meetings;
3. financial reporting;