Minister Creed announces Marine Institute funding grants totalling €3.3 million

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, today announced the awarding of a total of €3.3 million grant funding though the Marine Institute to research projects in two areas - specialist marine equipment and Ocean Law and Marine Governance.

Some 19 funding grants in total have been made in the area of specialist marine equipment and small infrastructure, totalling more than €2.5 million investment from the Marine Institute. The HEI (Higher Education Institutes) sector will receive 14 of these grants with five being granted to industry led proposals (SMEs).

The funding grants range from €20,000 to €200,000 with industry being funded at 75 per cent, meaning that these will also leverage private investment in specialist marine equipment for research and innovation development.

The Ocean Law and Marine Governance grant is being made to a partnership project between the MaREI Centre and University College of Cork School of Law. The funding amounts to €800,000 and will run over four years, employing three researchers with contributions from 12 MaREI and 5 UCC School of Law staff.

More than 20 researchers attended the announcement of the grants today (22 November) in Dublin city centre.

Minister Michael Creed said, "I'm delighted to announce these funding grants which herald the next step forward for many new projects in our marine sector. The funding for marine research equipment helps to target a gap in funding that exists between supports available to Higher Education Institutes via HEA and support from Ireland's development agencies such as SFI and Enterprise Ireland. These grants will allow the marine research and innovation community to purchase specialist equipment needed to support their current and future research activities."

Peter Heffernan, CEO of the Marine Institute, said the funding grants would enable pioneering marine research projects to develop in decades to come.

"The Ocean Law and Marine Governance Grant marks a very important step in investing further in the area of marine law and governance," he said. "During the development of the National Marine Research and Innovation Strategy, it was indicated that this important research area should be supported and the Marine Institute, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Foreign Affairs were consulted and a call was launched for a project-based funding grant.

"We are delighted that the MaREI Centre and UCC School of Law will be collaborating on this project which is called Navigate and will be led and coordinated by Dr Anne Marie O'Hagan, a Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Marine and Coastal Governance Group in the MaREI Centre."

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Appendix 1
Specialist marine equipment grant funding grants:

HEI funding grants	Organisation	Funding awarded
High Throughput SNP Analysis in the Marine Environment (HTSAME)	Queen's University Belfast	€125,555
Analysis of Trace Metals in Seawater for Marine Research	NUI Galway	€58,970
Lir NOTF - Enhancement Project	University College Cork	€169,255
Smart Aquaculture Feeding Trials Research Infrastructure	NUI Galway	€171,778
Particle Size Analyser for Transdisciplinary Research in Marine Sciences	NUI Galway	€65,333
Multi-colour Flow Cytometer and complementary accessory systems	Athlone Institute of Technology	€136,719
Marine Chiroptics	NUI Galway	€199,936
Continuous Flow Chemistry Equipment for Sugar Research	NUI Galway	€38,857
Quantifying the Impacts of Multiple Stressors on marine benthic resources (QIMS)	Trinity College Dublin	€194,654
Flexible environment monitoring platforms (FlexiMon)	University College Cork	€178,980
Analysis of climate relevant gases in seawater	NUI Galway	€48,569
Next generation of Autonomous Upper Ocean Profiling Platform	NUI Galway	€199,599
HYBRID FIXED WING VERTICAL TAKE-OFF & LANDING UAV FOR THE MARINE SECTOR	University of Limerick	€197,925
2GROBOTICS - UNDERWATER LASER SCANNER	University of Ulster	€183,196

SME funding grants	Organisation	Funding awarded
DMA machine	EireComposites Ltd	€51,203
CNC Machine	EireComposites Ltd	€200,000
Test Bed for Hybrid System for Auxiliary Power Production on Marine Vessels	Dare Technology	€141,698
Expansion and Consolidation of Satellite Ocean Colour Validation Activities	Techworks Marine Ltd	€85,040
Upgrading of the macro- and microalgal research facilities at Bantry Marine Research Station	Bantry Marine Research Station	€95,935

• 19 grants in total - 14 grants to HEI and 5 grants to SMEs
• €2.5m investment from MI, €410k contribution by recipients
• Approximate breakdown of investment across research areas:

	Universities	SMEs
Biodiversity	10%	0%
Bioresources	34%	17%
Climate Change & Environment	9%	0%
Ocean Observation & Advanced Technology	29%	15%
Renewable Energy & Engineering	19%	68%

Ocean Law and Marine Governance funding grant :
Navigate project (collaboration between MaREI Centre and UCC School of Law, led and co-ordinated by Dr Anne Marie O'Hagan, a Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Marine and Coastal Governance Group in the MaREI Centre)

€800,000 funding grant and project duration of four years

Three researchers employed (1 senior fellow, 1 fellow, 1 graduate researcher), contributions from 12 MaREI and 5 UCC School of Law staff

The Navigate project will establish a knowledge base of marine law developed around a matrix of sectors and pressures. A knowledge base will be constructed to inform a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, reviewing national marine law and governance. A face-to-face project consultation phase will be held to respond to the needs of government departments and State agencies so as to prioritise individual place, sector and pressure-based studies

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