New European grassland project launches in Cork
Professor Michael O'Donovan, Teagasc; Billy Kelleher MEP; and Dr Deirdre Hennessy, UCC lecturer in sustainable agriculture with delegates at the first meeting of an €8m Horizon Europe grassland project, GrassWise, at the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co Cork. Picture: O'Gorman Photography
The €8m Horizon Europe Grassland Project, GrassWise, held the first day of its “kick-off” meeting in Cork.
The GrassWise Project was formally launched by MEP Billy Kelleher at Teagasc Moorepark in Co Cork. The project is a four-year research innovation project involving 13 European countries and New Zealand, and 20 research organisations.
GrassWise aims to generate and benchmark grassland data across Europe’s nine pedoclimatic zones, integrating partner farmer networks, satellite observations, and grassland decision support tools and datasets.
The project’s reach spans Europe’s nine pedoclimatic zones, from Boreal to Mediterranean regions, and includes Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Romania, Serbia, and New Zealand.
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The project will work with 135 partner farms and nine communities of practice in the development of an integrated European grassland data platform.
The project will deliver a new generation of decision-support tools, enabling farmers to benchmark multifunctionality, improve grassland management, and adopt profitable, low-emission, circular practices.
At the official launch of GrassWise, Mr Kelleher said: “Grasslands cover 34% of the EU’s agricultural area, yet their full value remains under-recognised and underutilised. This project is timely as it will develop new innovations to better capitalise on the sustainability of grassland systems across the nine European pedoclimatic zones.”
Head of the Teagasc grassland science research department and coordinator of GrassWise Professor Michael O’Donovan, said: "The project will measure, monitor, and benchmark European grasslands within the project lifespan, and we hope to develop long-term grassland datasets which European grassland farmers can use beyond the project lifetime. That makes this project unique.”
University College Cork and GrassWise work package leader Deirdre Hennessy, said: “GrassWise is ambitious in its objectives but realistic. Action-ready, rooted in real farming practice, the project is well aligned with the EU’s sustainability goals, but is really focused on developing more insights in grassland science across Europe."
