The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for Farm Safety, Martin Heydon T.D., today announced the launch of a €1 million call for proposals for innovative farm health, safety and wellbeing projects under the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP).
Minister Heydon commented, “Fatal accidents on farms account for nearly 50% of all workplace fatal incidents each year, despite farms only accounting for 6% of the workforce. As the first Government Minister with specific responsibility for Farm Safety I want to put safety at the heart of our farms and I want farmers to be centrally involved in how we do that. That is why I am delighted to be launching a call under the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP’s) specifically related to farm health safety and well being. This call will see the provision of €1m to explore new and innovative ways of dealing with Farm Safety challenges within the sector. The EIP model is built on stakeholders in the sector itself coming together as a group and trialling new and innovative ideas and approaches. I am confident that the EIP model will prove to be of significant benefit in the area of farmer health, safety and well being.”
Stage 1 of the EIP call for proposals on Farm Health, Safety and Wellbeing is now being launched, with a closing date of Friday 29 January 2021. At Stage 1, a short application form is required which sets out the main elements of a proposed project. All forms and guidance notes are available at: www.gov.ie/en/service/18a855-european-innovation-partnership-scheme/
Minister Heydon concluded by saying, “We are now asking interested parties to come together and develop their ideas as to how we can address issues of farm health, safety and wellbeing. This EIP call for proposals is an exciting initiative, which will help us to put in place innovative approaches in this vital area.”
Further Guidance
The EIP initiative is co-funded by the EU Commission as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme. Essentially it involves a range of stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, NGOs etc) coming together in what are termed ‘Operational Groups’ to trial innovative solutions that the Group themselves have developed. There is a wide range of EIP Operational Groups already in existence under Irelands RDP, but this is the first call for proposals which specifically targets farm health, safety and wellbeing.
In Stage 1 , Groups are required to provide outline details of their proposal and approach. This is the stage now being launched, with a closing date of 29 January 2021. These short proposals are assessed by an expert committee, and those proposals successfully selected at Stage 1 move to Stage 2
In Stage 2 , the initial proposals are developed in much greater detail and each proposal must submit a detailed project plan at this stage – the development of these plans is funded under the EIP initiative. All these detailed project plans are again assessed by an expert committee, with successful projects moving to full implementation. Implementation of projects is also funded under the EIP initiative.
Full guidance notes and application forms for interested parties are available at: www.gov.ie/en/service/18a855-european-innovation-partnership-scheme/
