Bilateral Regional Accord between Ireland and Wales

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A United Kingdom - Ireland (Ireland - Wales)

Date of latest update: 2024-03-20

Description

Description (EN): BRAINWAVES uses a circular economic approach to manage slurry and dirty water, developing technology to remediate these wastewaters, to generate economically valuable feed, and thus to enhance the competitiveness of the beef and dairy industry in the target area.

Achievements (EN):

It is now some 5 years ago that the original idea of what would become the Brainwaves project was first conceived. So, what has happened since, what was achieved, and what remains to be done? In 2018, original ideas about protecting the environment, retaining plant nutrients rather than unsustainable mining for new fertiliser ingredients, and achieving value from waste using duckweed were very attractive. With hindsight these original ideas were (and are!) very much in tune with developments, problems, opportunities and visions for the agricultural sector. Also, these ideas were (and are!) very much in line with the concept of the “Circular Economy”, a widely accepted principle which involves re-using, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as much as possible. The Brainwaves project has demonstrated that duckweed can be grown on a variety of different aqueous waste streams, cleaning the water, retaining the nutrients, and generating protein-rich biomass that can be used in animal feeds. To do so, the Brainwaves team has developed both indoor and outdoor bioreactors, facilitating both capital intensive, year-round cultivation as well as low cost, seasonal cultivation in applications in industry and on farms. While the focus on the circular economy may suggest an element of foresight, if so, this was only a very partial foresight! Indeed, few of us could have predicted the Covid19 pandemic which massively impacted society, including very substantially the Brainwaves project. A project with a strong emphasis on engaging with societal and commercial stakeholders needs face-to-face communication. Indeed, one lesson from the Covid19 pandemic is how critical face-to-face communication is for getting things done! Another major change which impacted on the Brainwaves project was the massive increase in fertiliser cost, linked amongst other things to the war in Ukraine. Thus, in a short time-period, the perspective of animal slurry changed from that of a waste product to that of a critically important, and valuable fertiliser. This affected the Brainwaves project which had initially focused on the concept of slurry as a waste product to be valorised using duckweed. The project team responded to this changed environment by focusing increasingly on other agri-food waste streams, and particularly on more dilute yard washings from dairy farms. Indeed, one of the lessons from the Brainwaves project is that duckweed-based remediation is a concept that can be used to retain nutrients, and generate valuable, protein-rich biomass from a wide variety of different agri-food waste streams.

Website: http://www.irelandwales.eu/

Thematic information

Water management

Specific Objective: To increase the intensity of knowledge transfer collaborations involving research organisations and SMEs in line with the shared priorities of the smart specialisation strategies

Thematic Objective: (01) strengthening research, technological development and innovation by:

Investment Priority:

(01b) promoting business investment in R&I, developing links and synergies between enterprises, research and development centres and the higher education sector, in particular promoting investment in product and service development, technology transfer, social innovation, eco-innovation, public service applications, demand stimulation, networking, clusters and open innovation through smart specialisation, and supporting technological and applied research, pilot lines, early product validation actions, advanced manufacturing capabilities and first production, in particular in key enabling technologies and diffusion of general purpose technologies

Partners (1)

Lead Partner: University College Cork

Address: T12 YN60 Cork, Ireland

Legal status: n/a

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

University College Cork

Bilateral Regional Accord between Ireland and Wales

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Bilateral Regional Accord between Ireland and Wales

Project acronym: BRAINWAVES

Project start date: 2019-09-01

Project end date: 2021-08-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 460 731.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 1 168 585.00

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 1 168 585.00.

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Videos / films

A Duckweed Film by Luke Ring

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2023-03-21

Languages: en

EU Project uses a Circular Economy approach to valorise waste

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2022-09-12

Languages: en

From Lab to Farm

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2023-11-08

Languages: en

How scientists are innovating circular, sustainable farming systems in Wales and Ireland

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2022-09-02

Languages: en

Introducing the Brainwaves Project

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2022-03-22

Languages: en

Sut mae gwyddonwyr yn arloesi â systemau ffermio cylchog, cynaliadwy yng Nghymru ac Iwerddon

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2022-10-10

Languages: cy

This one tiny plant cleans water AND produces a high protein crop

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://www.ucc.ie/en/brainwaves/

Publication date: 2024-10-25

Document date: 2022-03-21

Languages: en

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A United Kingdom - Ireland (Ireland - Wales)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2022-08-08

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

23 / 23 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

23 / 90 (25.56%)

Notes on the data

Data was retrieved by Interact from the programme´s website on the 2019-03-21, 2020-04-18, 2020-11-06, 2021-07-30 and 2022-07-19. Regarding partners only data only main partners is available. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (https://irelandwales.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2023-02-01 and 2024-03-20.

Languages

Contact Form

Bilateral Regional Accord between Ireland and Wales

Description

Thematic information

Partners (1)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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