In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Republic of Ireland Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) and the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) launched a five-year pilot (pilot) adding agriculture as a Partnership priority area. During the pilot, the partners capitalized investments in research intended to help solve global agriculture-related issues.  Following the successful conclusion of the pilot, USDA, DAFM and DAERA intend to continue to support agriculture as a priority area under the Partnership.

 

The Call in Agriculture allows Principal Investigators/Project Directors (PI/PD) from the United States (U.S.), Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI) to collaborate in response to calls for proposals in select program areas in the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Foundational and Applied Science Request for Applications (RFA). 

 

There must be at least one PI/PD from each jurisdiction, with the U.S. partner bearing responsibility for submission of the joint “tri-partite” proposal to USDA/NIFA. If approved for funding by NIFA, DAFM funds the RoI investigator(s), DAERA funds the NI investigator(s), and NIFA funds the U.S. investigator(s). 

 

Research applications may be submitted in the following six Program Area Priorities:
 

1. Pests and Beneficial Species in Agricultural Production Systems;

2. Animal Nutrition, Growth and Lactation;

3. Welfare and Well-Being of Agricultural Animals;

4. Diseases of Agricultural Animals;

5. Animal Breeding and Functional Annotation of Genomes; and

6. Mitigating Antimicrobial Resistance Across the Food Chain.
 

Applicants are encouraged to read the FAQs for this partnership. For more information on the DAFM and DAERA application process, please visit the DAFM  website and DAERA  website.

Would you like to learn more about agricultural research and development funding opportunities under the Partnership?  Please join the Join USDA, DAFM(link is external) and DAERA(link is external) for a webinar on Tuesday, June 22 at 10am EDT | 3pm BST/IST  to learn more! 

 

NOTE: USDA, DAFM and DAERA are currently accepting applications for 2021.
 

 

Topic:  Improved Pig Health through the Novel Application of SynBio in Phage Therapy (Phage SUAS)

Institutions involved: University of Wisconsin, Teagasc, Queens University of Belfast, and University College Cork

 

Topic:  Characterization of the respiratory microbiome and virome associated with Bovine Respiratory 

Institutions involved: USDA Agricultural Research Service, Teagasc, and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute

 

Topic: Targeted genome editing to enhance resistance to Mycobacterium bovis infection in domestic cattle populations

Institutions involved: Acceligen/Recombinetics Inc., Queens University and University College Dublin

 

Topic: Development and validation of an on-farm, electronic disease diagnosis platform for cattle

Institutions involved: Georgia Tech University, Queens University, and University College Cork

 

Topic:  Improved Animal husbandry through inhibition of Microbial Bile Salt Hydrolase

Institutions involved: University of Tennessee, Queens University, and University College Cork

 

Topic:  Identification of Regulatory Element Variants Impeding Immune Response to Pathogens Causing Bovine Respiratory Disease

Institutions involved: University of Missouri, Teagasc, and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute

 

Project details can be found on the NIFA website.