2025 Competitive Call for Research Proposals
DAERA is supporting research performing organisations in NI to participate as partners with their counterparts in the Republic of Ireland in joint proposals that will benefit the local rural and agri-food sectors. For the sixth time, DAERA will co-fund a new Research call under the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) competitive research funding programme which is now open for applications.
DAERA has identified a number of topics in the DAFM’s 2025 Competitive Call for Research Proposals that are open for collaborative proposals between Irish and NI research organisations. Building on the success of previous years, this year sees the widest range of topics within the broad areas of shared strategic relevance;
- Climate, Agri-Environment and Biodiversity
- Smart, Sustainable Animal & Plant Production, Health & Welfare
- Bioeconomy, AgTech, Digitalisation & Data
- Safe, Nutritious and Sustainable Food Processing and Consumption
Thematic Research Objectives eligible for DAERA co-funding are denoted in the Call Specification by an asterisk * and further details can be found by clicking Call Specification and Guidelines
DAERA funds NI researchers in successful project applications with DAFM funding partnering research organisations based in the Republic of Ireland.
The DAERA / DAFM Competitive Research Call encourages applications that are:
- collaborative & inter-institutional
- address multiple research objectives
- involve an integrated holistic approach
- multidisciplinary involving a number of biosciences and
- contribute meaningfully to innovation
DAERA provides funding, subject to budget availability, to the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Queen’s University Belfast and the Ulster University in successful projects in selected research areas within the call.
NI Applicants must submit a pre-approval template to the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Office at collaborative.research@daera-ni.gov.uk by 13th May 2025 at 5.00pm. DAERA will confirm each project’s eligibility subject to budget availability and alignment with DAERA’s strategic priorities by 20th May 2025, in advance of full project submission via DAFM’s Research Online Portal.
To ensure effective collaboration, DAERA would expect a minimum of 15% of the overall grant request for the project to be attributed to partners from NI. The same minimum figure applies for projects with single or multiple NI partners.
Please download the pre-approval template at DAERA Pre-approval Template or by emailing collaborative.research@daera-ni.gov.uk.
The list of DAERA Policies and Strategies relevant to the Call can be found on DAFM Research call 2025-DAERA Policies and Strategies.
Application information can be obtained at DAFM research Call 2025 - Application.
The Submission deadline for the Call is 10th June 2025 at 12:00 noon