Ministers Heydon and O’Brien announce €10 million EU Just Transition Funding for two bioeconomy demonstration projects

Awards of €5 million each from the EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative will support two bioeconomy projects with collaboration across the Midlands

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, and Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien TD, have today announced €10 million in funding for two bioeconomy demonstration initiatives. This is the second call under the EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative, which is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union. This call is designed to deliver practical, investable bioeconomy solutions in Ireland’s Just Transition Fund Territory in the Midlands, which supports communities and businesses to build new, low-carbon biobased value chains as the region moves away from peat. Both projects will anchor their demonstration activity, biomass procurement and industry collaboration in the Midlands, generating local investment, supply-chain opportunities, and skills development.

Funding of €5 million is being awarded to the ‘BIOCHAR’ project led by University of Limerick while a further €5 million is being awarded to ‘TRANSFORM’, which is led by University College Dublin. Marking the announcement, Minister Heydon said:

The ‘BIOCHAR’ project will bring together a range of partners from across Ireland and leverage their experience to develop and produce a sustainable biochar product for demonstration in agriculture, water treatment, and transport infrastructure. The biochar will be produced from indigenous biomasses and tested through large-scale demonstrations in the Just Transition Fund Territory, including in agriculture, water treatment and transport infrastructure. The project will also develop a high-level blueprint for a mid-sized biochar facility to support future investment and replication in the Midlands.

Through collaboration and engagement with the Circular Food Company in the Midlands and SOMATECH, a fermentation technology provider in Ireland, the ‘TRANSFORM’ project will demonstrate the upcycling of food waste and agri-food by-products. Commercial-scale demonstration will take place at the Circular Food Company’s facility in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, with investment in new equipment and staff supporting sustainable biomanufacturing, jobs and logistics in the region. This project will also develop a replicable model for the wider agri-food sector to unlock upcycling opportunities to produce high-value ingredients for applications in the food and feed industries.

Commenting on the two newly-funded initiatives, Minister O’Brien stated:

Head of the EU Commission Representation in Ireland, Peter Power, said:

Clare Bannon, Acting Director of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (EMRA), the Managing Authority for Ireland’s EU Just Transition Fund Programme, said:

Notes to editor

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Project details

1. BIOCHAR project

The BIOCHAR project, led by University of Limerick, will enable climate change mitigation and adaptation, and contribute to the development of a circular bioeconomy, through the demonstration of cross-sectoral applications for biochar. Biochar is a carbon-rich, charcoal-like material made by heating biomass (for example, wood chips or crop residues) with limited oxygen. It can store carbon for long periods and can also act as a natural filter and soil improver. Biochar materials will be procured via a robust tendering process using biomasses sourced from indigenous feedstocks, creating opportunities for companies in the Just Transition Fund Territory to compete for contract manufacture to project specifications. Demonstration trials will be undertaken in the Just Transition Fund Territory across agriculture and land, anaerobic digestion, water treatment and infrastructure, including commercial farm trials with farmers in the region and partners such as Aurivo. The project will work with an engineer to develop a high-level blueprint/schematic of a mid-sized biochar facility for sharing with interested parties in the Just Transition Fund Territory and beyond, supporting future regional investment.

The project aims to demonstrate and validate reduced carbon emissions across a range of economic sectors including agriculture, construction, and wastewater treatment. Demonstration trials, biomass selection and product testing will all be applicable to, and take place within, the EU Just Transition Fund region in Ireland.

In agriculture, biochar will be demonstrated as manure additive in poultry sheds and slurry storage units to reduce emissions of ammonia. The manure-biochar blend from these units will then be fed to an anaerobic digestor where the addition of biochar is expected to achieve two benefits;

(1) an increase in biogas production, and

(2) the capturing and retaining of nutrients from manure in a manner which will slow the release of nutrients when used as a soil amendment.

In another demonstration, biochar will be used initially for the removal of organic contaminants from wastewater. Following this, the biochar will be incorporated into asphalt and used for the construction of roads and/or cycle lanes. Through these activities, and the bringing together of a consortium with significant experience in biochar production, testing and trialling, it is intended that the BIOCHAR project will stimulate the scaling up of biochar production and product development.

1. TRANSFORM project

The TRANSFORM project, led by University College Dublin, aims to develop and validate scalable, circular business models that enable food and beverage producers and businesses to convert agri-food by-products into high-value functional ingredients through state-of-the-art bioprocessing.

Ireland generates around 835,000 tonnes of food waste each year (EPA). TRANSFORM addresses the gap between this large volume of by-products, and the limited higher-value uses currently available-by demonstrating how food and beverage by-products can be upcycled into saleable ingredients rather than being treated as a waste.

In plain terms, the project will use controlled fermentation and drying to turn fibrous by-products (starting with brewers' spent grain) into natural 'functional ingredients'. These are ingredients that can improve nutrition, taste, texture and/or shelf-life in foods, and can also be used in animal feed. The project will examine a centralised model at the Circular Food Company based in Tullamore, Co Offaly where solid-state-fermentation and drying technologies will be used to create functional ingredients using brewers spent gains initially.

The end-to-end upcycling approach, from feedstock collection to ingredient formulation, will be established at the Circular Food Company's dedicated facility in Tullamore (commercial-scale demonstration using a one-tonne system), supported by a €207,000 investment in equipment in the Co. Offaly based facility. SomaTech will invest €312,000 in modular solid-state fermentation equipment (installed in Ballybay, Co Monaghan). Fermented intermediate products will be transferred to Tullamore for downstream processing and product development, demonstrating how this approach can be deployed across the Just Transition Fund Territory over time.

The project will develop the business case for a distributed closed-loop model, enabling other agri-food producers to valorise waste, or by-products, at source via modular fermentation units on site-supporting. This can support replication across the Midlands and nationally.

The consortium aims for up to 50 new or sustained jobs to be created in the Offaly region in sustainable biomanufacturing and logistics as the technology and market uptake grows. A distributed model will also be explored, where technology know-how will be licensed for use by other agri-food producers and manufacturers, enabling businesses across Ireland to create higher value ingredients and circular business models within their own supply chains. Both models are designed to support short supply chains, improve resource efficiency, develop scalable and replicable use of biobased technologies, and stimulate market responsiveness.

The EU JTF Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative

The EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund. The 2025 €10 million funding call was designed to pilot and demonstrate the bioeconomy in action within the Just Transition Fund Territory. The funding offered the opportunity to support close collaboration between stakeholders along the entire bio-based value chain, including SMEs, research performing organisations, universities, local authorities, clusters, primary producers, bioprocessing industries, and consumer brands.

This Call aimed to support the development of two Bioeconomy piloting and demonstration projects in the 'Designated Territories' of the midlands, which includes the counties of Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Roscommon, and the Municipal Districts of Ballinasloe (Co. Galway), Athy and Clane-Maynooth (Co. Kildare), and Carrick-on-Suir and Thurles (Co. Tipperary).

In October 2024, €10 million in funding was announced for two successful projects under Call 1 of the EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative. The ‘Mount Lucas Circular Bioeconomy Aquaculture’ project is located at Mount Lucas in Co. Offaly and the ‘BioScale’ up project is based at the National Bioeconomy Campus, Lisheen in Thurles Co. Tipperary. Since receiving funding, both projects have been working to recruit essential staff and to purchase and install the required demonstration equipment at their sites.

The two projects have been active in communicating their objectives through key bioeconomy activities such as the All-Island Bioeconomy Summit 2025 and Bioeconomy Ireland Week 2025. Both projects will significantly ramp-up scientific and demonstration activities in 2026. It is anticipated that an official launch event will be held at each location in summer 2026 to showcase the funded equipment, facilities, and staff.

The Bioeconomy

The bioeconomy represents a strategic opportunity of the 21st century - a driver of green growth, competitiveness and resilience. It makes better use of biological resources, scientific excellence and industrial base to decarbonise our economy and replace fossil-based materials and products. It develops practical solutions that support economic prosperity, and strong rural and coastal communities, while helping industry shift to more circular production models. It contributes to strategic autonomy by reducing reliance on imported fossil-based products and can contribute significantly to climate and environmental goals such as resource efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, water resilience, zero pollution and biodiversity.

Support for bioeconomy piloting and demonstration

Support for piloting and demonstration activities is a key objective of the Bioeconomy Action Plan 2023-2025.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has already invested €22 million in bioeconomy demonstration activities since 2023 via €10 million announced under EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative, €3 million announced for integrated anaerobic digestion and green biorefining demonstration initiative and €9 million announced under the Shared Island Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative.

This announcement relates to a second funding Call, worth a further €10 million, that was opened under the EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative: 2025 EU Just Transition Fund Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative (Call 2).

Just Transition – funding and supports

To date, there have been 15 calls, with a total of over €110 million awarded to 183 projects (under grant agreement).

Initiatives include:

New call launched under the EU JTF Programme - Supporting a Sustainable Transition through Climate Action for a Resilient Territory (START)

The latest call under the EU JTF programme is now open and will support local authority-led Climate Action Plan infrastructure projects and feasibility studies that align with the EU JTF programme. The Supporting a Sustainable Transition through Climate Action for a Resilient Territory (START) scheme represents an investment of a further €30 million into the Midlands EU Just Transition Territory focussed on local climate action.

This new scheme will further support the climate transition and overall resilience of the Just Transition Territory by supporting projects contained within Local Authority Climate Action Plans. The types of projects that may be funded under this scheme include renewable energy projects, energy efficiency works, rehabilitation of contaminated land such as former landfills, and investment in sustainable transport infrastructure in their local area.

Local authorities in the region will lead the delivery of these projects, from identifying local priorities and applying for funding, to working with community partners on implementation. They may partner with community groups, NGOs and other organisations.

Further information on the call, being administered by Pobal, is now available on the Pobal website.