We were delighted to recently spend a fruitful day with local dairy farmers at the Brainwaves stakeholder engagement event in UCC. The farming industry in Ireland is rapidly changing, with both new threats and new opportunities arising.  At this informal event Prof Marcel Jansen presented on some of the new opportunities for integrating duckweed cultivation in Irish farming. PhD candidate, Cian Redmond, discussed the results from his reserach conducted by growing Duckweed on waste water streams collected from local dairy farms. Stephen O’Sullivan presented on the story of the Green Farmer Cooperative, and their work on duckweed as a cash-crop for dairy farmers.  After the informal talks we embarked into the Indian summer sunshine for an informative tour and demonstration of the Duckweed Growth Facilities both in the labs and glasshouses at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences.   Thank you to our stakeholders for participating in the Brainwaves project, sharing their insights from a farmers perspective and for making the day such an interesting and informative event. 

An early start for the Aberystwyth Brainwaves team on Tuesday 25th July as we headed off for the Royal Welsh Show. Dylan’s day kicked off with an interview with BBC Radio 4 for ‘Farming Today’ talking about growing duckweed as a source of protein for animal feed, which was broadcast the following morning as  part of a series of interviews from around the show.

Project partners and Programme Monitoring Committee members gathered in Portmarnock, Dublin on 23rd June to celebrate the success of the 2014-2020 Ireland Wales European Territorial Co-operation Programme. The event, compared by Newstalk’s Jonathan Healy, provided the stage for project beneficiaries in Ireland and Wales to talk about their experiences of working together across the Irish Sea, following opening video addresses from Mark Drakeford the First Minister of Wales and Pascal Donohoe, Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in Ireland.