Researchers from Technological University of the Shannon are calling on farmers to join them in getting their hands dirty in a bid to improve soil quality – with grants of up to €60,000 available.
The launch of the Soilcrates Ireland Living Lab project took place at TUS’s Moylish campus in Limerick, where the project is being spearheaded, on Thursday.
This Living Lab is central element of the Horizon Europe Soilcrates project, funded by the European Union. The project’s ambitions are to enhance soil structure, health and knowledge via four Living Labs across the EU – where farmers and researchers work hand in hand.
One of these Living Labs will be based in the mid-west region – where farmers from Counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary will be taking part- with the other Living Labs in Spain, France and the Netherlands.
Anyone with an interest in soil health may follow the project and attend events and workshops.
Farmers who would like to participate more actively will be asked to highlight the challenges they are experiencing and provide a piece of land for the duration of the four-year project to explore sustainable practices to address the issues they are experiencing on their land.
Funding of €1.6million has been provided for this project across the four Living Labs and a total of €400,000 is available in grants for farmers in Ireland – with sums of between €20,000 and €60,000 to be given to those selected.
The project will be headquartered in TUS where baseline soil testing will occur later this year with soil improvement experiments commencing in 2026 and fieldwork and demonstrations on the land taking place during the project duration too.
Ballyhoura Development, Cloughjordan Community Farm, Loop Head Together and Kraken Seeds Ltd are also involved in the project.
Dr Lena Madden, Research Fellow from TUS, who is the Soilcrates Irish Living Lab co-ordinator, said: “I am so excited that TUS will be playing a key part in the Soilcrates Living Lab project.
“As researchers here in TUS our goal is to find working solutions to real-life problems. In this case it means putting on our wellies and working with those farmers who know the problems on their land and marrying that knowledge with our scientific acumen.
“There are soil health issues impacting the agricultural sector, that include nitrogen usage and poor drainage, and we want to see if we can address those using innovative practices.
“All efforts towards exploring sustainable soil management don’t just improve soil health for participating farms, but for everyone.
“Knowledge will be continuously shared which has the potential to really help with building a resilience both economically and environmentally for farmers all across the mid-west.”
Dr Shane O’Sullivan, a senior lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, in TUS, said: “It is important for the farmers to know this is an equal collaboration and we will all be working very much together as a partnership.
“For those who do agree to allow us use their land, it won’t in any way impact on them in terms of their usage for agricultural purposes.
“For instance, cows and sheep will be able to keep grazing, while the experiments adopted will have been tested fully beforehand. The key though is that the farmers share our interest in improving soil quality.” If interested in taking part in the Living Lab please get in touch by emailing soilcrates.ireland@tus.ie or you can get more information at www.soilcratesireland.ie