Regenerative agriculture scholarship announced by Project Baseline
What drives some farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture, and what holds others back?
This will be the focus of an MSc research scholarship launched this week by the Project Baseline team to investigate farmers' approaches to regenerative agriculture.
This research will be the "first of its kind" in Ireland to explore the social, cultural, and generational factors influencing the uptake of regenerative practices, according to Project Baseline - the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project which will run until the end of 2029.
The scholarship - which forms a core part of Project Baseline - is intended to offer fresh insight into how Ireland can advance towards a more resilient, profitable, and environmentally sustainable farming future.
Two-year scholarship
The successful MSc candidate will be registered at University College Dublin (UCD) under the supervision of Prof. Jim Kinsella from the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.
The two-year scholarship includes full university fees and an annual stipend of €25,000.
A Project Baseline statement said: "Through engagement with farmers practicing regenerative agriculture and those considering transition, this research is intended to illuminate the real-world stories, challenges, motivations, and decision-making processes at the heart of regenerative farming in Ireland, and ultimately contributing to a knowledge base that supports farmer-led innovation and long-term sustainability."
Project Baseline
At the launch of Project Baseline earlier this month, project manager Pippa Hacket, told Agriland: "Project Baseline is about working to understand more about regenerative agriculture... and being able to quantify the impacts of those practices on important things like biodiversity or water quality.
"It is important to look at the farm financial side of it because, when you speak to regenerative farmers, they tell you it is working for them.
"They have got better quality soil and their farm finances are doing better so we are going to put that to the test for a project based on [regenerative farming]."
Project Baseline is led by BASE Ireland, an organisation rooted in a community of farmers, agronomists, and agricultural professionals championing regenerative agriculture.
BASE Ireland recently received €1.45 million in funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the European Commission.
The wider project aims to build the first comprehensive picture of regenerative agriculture in Ireland, assessing its potential to improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, and strengthen farm system resilience, while shaping a new evidence-based platform for national agricultural policy.
