One of the key activities of the consortium was to conduct a national Food and Health research audit and produce a national research roadmap and in relation to how Ireland can fully engage in the European Technology Platform Food for Life programme, European Framework research programmes, and to ensure that Food and Health maximizes its contribution to the state strategy for research in that area.
The concept of a national Food and Health research audit originated at the planning stages of IFHRA. IFHRA partners completed a survey of research infrastructure; facilities and equipment in 2009. The research expertise within each of the institutions was the second component of the audit; this was facilitated by an initiative by the Relay[1] coordinating centre at Teagasc (Moorepark). Relay is a dissemination arm of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine’s Food Institutional Research Measures (FIRM). Therefore, as this initiative covered four of the seven IFHRA institutions, and the institutional submissions were approved by each, we decided to use the existing information and request those not covered to provide their input in a similar format. The final component was to develop a national research roadmap and in particular how Ireland can fully engage in the ETP Food for Life programme, European Framework research programmes, and to ensure that Food and Health maximizes its contribution to the state strategy for research in that area. However, as mentioned above there have been many recent and rapid developments on both European and national initiatives as well as strategic planning exercises in the food area and it would seem wise to allow for an evolution of this under cycle 5 of PRTLI-5.
IFHRA have produced 3 reports for the HEA in relation to the state of research and research support on the island of Ireland. Areas covered include
- Infrastructure
- 4th Level
- Research Expertise and Funding
Please contact the programme manager for access to these reports (s.rafferty@ucc.ie)