Using innovative and cutting-edge techniques, we will develop sustainable food production systems which are unencumbered by traditional farming practices. Looking to the future, we will utilise novel genomic and agronomic approaches to increase yield or nutritional composition of nationally relevant crops to develop novel methods which will produce sustainable, healthy animal and crop produce for the island.

We will provide evidence-base for the development, formulation and implementation of healthy and sustainable diets across all population groups by utilising existing data from population-based studies and completing human intervention studies to examine the nutritional and environmental impact of healthy sustainable foods and diets.

The highest standards of food safety and authenticity are key to the continued global reputation of our food producers. We will develop strategies to underpin accurate assessment of emerging food safety risks, including those arising from climate action mitigations, novel process technologies and reformulation of foods, with challenge studies under typical food production processing conditions.

In supporting consumer change, it is important to understand barriers and influences to sustainable food production - from producers and business to consumer - to determine educational and skills training requirements of agri-food stakeholders to support a sustainable food system. We will determine the impact of changes in agri-food production systems on rural enterprise and community to help identify and develop policy options and institutional innovations to enable transitions to more sustainable food systems. At the societal level, cognisant of global markets and economics, we will examine the impact of global regulatory environments on the success of an all-island approach to sustainable healthy food systems.

Protein-I is a €3.1M project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs that is taking a food systems approach to enhancing the sustainability of protein production across the island of Ireland. This project is led by Professor Lorraine Brennan (UCD) and brings together six of the Food-I partners (UCD, Teagasc, University of Galway, UCC, UU and Queen’s).

Myxotox-I is a €1.6M project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to develop tools to ensure the safety and quality of Irish grain produce. The project is led by Professor Fiona Doohan (UCD) and involves four Food-I partners (UCD, Teagasc, Queen’s and AFBI) and Maynooth University.

Food Shield is a €450,000 project funded by the North-South COVID-19 Rapid Response call. The project is co-led by Professor Fiona Doohan (UCD) and Professor Chris Elliott (Queen’s) in partnership with the University of Galway.

The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund has provided €196,000 to fund a Gaeltacht-based social enterprise working to promote Northwest Donegal as a region known for sustainability, biodiversity, and low-carbon food production. Project is led by Professor Fiona Doohan (UCD).

Food-I has established an innovation hub with Enterprise Ireland, government and industry to promote and exploit plant research and innovation on the island of Ireland.