Ten finalists for National Challenge Fund competition announced

Research projects tackling sustainability and food systems challenges receive grow phase funding

Life

Image: Shutterstock

25 March 2025

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science James Lawless has today announced the final 10 research teams to receive ‘grow phase’ funding under the National Challenge Fund – a €65 million competitive programme which aims to deliver solutions for major environmental and societal issues.

The National Challenge Fund, a programme funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, has supported 96 teams to identify problems related to Ireland’s Green transition and digital transformation and collaborate directly with those stakeholders most affected by them to create real and tangible solutions.

The teams selected today will have the opportunity for additional funding in the final phase of the programme, where prize funding of €2 million will be on offer to the most competitive teams under each challenge.

Minister Lawless said: “These teams are working on innovative, solution-focused projects that will have a real and positive impact across society, the economy, and the environment. They are exemplars of the positive impact research and innovation funding can deliver. I look forward to seeing these research teams progress their projects over the next year as they continue to support Ireland’s digital transformation and green transition.”

Celine Fitzgerald, Interim CEO, Research Ireland, said: “This announcement marks a key milestone for the National Challenge Fund as the final 10 research teams receive grow phase funding becoming finalists in this fast-passed funding programme. I wish all the finalist teams success as they continue to work towards delivering their ambitious solutions to key national challenges.”

The teams receiving funding today are split across two challenge areas. The Sustainable Communities Challenge seeks solutions to ensure a sustainable future for Ireland’s urban and rural populations. The finalists in this challenge are researching solutions for key challenges in the areas of transportation infrastructure maintenance, waste polyester recycling, sustainable construction methods, mitigating bridge failure risk, and empowering communities to adopt more sustainable modes of transport.

The Future Food Systems Challenge seeks solutions for sustainable, productive and resilient food systems. The teams in this challenge are researching solutions for key challenges in the areas of sustainable alternative protein sources, disease management in aquaculture, recycling critical raw materials for agrifood systems, mitigating crop losses due to fungal disease, and decision-support systems for food production in greenhouses.

Each team is being awarded up to €500,000 funding for the next 12 months. They will spend the next year advancing prototyping activities and demonstrating how the solutions they are developing can create tangible value by addressing the specific societal needs identified and refined in the previous phases of the funding programme.

Teams receiving funding:

Sustainable Communities Challenge

Teams (alphabetically by lead researcher):

Dr Shane Donohue, University College Dublin; Dr Soumyabrata Dev, University College Dublin: Geometric – GEOphysics and machine learning for evaluating transportation infrastructure condition.
Prof. Susan Kelleher, Dublin City University; Dr Jennifer Gaughran, Dublin City University: PureTex: Creating polyurethane insulation from recycled textiles.
Dr Oliver Kinnane, University College Dublin; Dr Samar Raffoul, University College Dublin: Platform4MMC – Decision support platform for optimum and sustainable Modern Methods of Construction rollout to alleviate the housing crisis.
Dr Myra Lydon, University of Galway; Dr Amaya Vega, Atlantic Technological University: Embrace – Mobility: Equitable management of bridges for resilient accessible communities to ensure mobility.
Prof. Niamh Moore-Cherry, University College Dublin; Prof. Brian Caulfield, Trinity College Dublin: Conundrum: Co-creating sustainable and shared community mobility.

Future Food Systems

Teams (alphabetically by lead researcher):

Prof. Fiona Doohan, University College Dublin; Prof. Lorraine Brennan, University College Dublin: FungiTech – crop residues as a substrate for producing filamentous mycoprotein.
Dr Niall Maloney, Atlantic Technological University; Prof. Enda McGlynn, Dublin City University: NanoSA – Using Nanostructures for Sustainable Aquaculture.
Dr Kirill Nikitin, University College Dublin; Dr Simon Hodge, University College Dublin: SINFERT – Non-aqueous generation of soluble phosphate fertiliser from solid agricultural biowaste for sustainable agrifood systems.
Prof. David O’Connor, Dublin City University; Prof. Anne Parle-McDermot, Dublin City University: AgSense – Agriculture fungal sensing.
Prof. Charles Spillane, University of Galway; Dr Galina Brychkova, University of Galway: Agri-Immanence – A generative AI/IoT enabled digital agronomy advisor for sustainability transitions of covered horti-food production systems.

TechCentral Reporters