Research Newsletter - Issue 105: Funding Opportunities

TORA deadline: 23 June 2025

Call deadline: 01 July 2025, 12:00pm

The 2025 SEAI National Energy Research, Development & Demonstration (RD&D) Funding Programme is now open for applications, with up to €19M in funding available for innovative research proposals to transform our energy system.

Check out the SEAI National Energy Research Funding webpage for full details. 

This year’s Call includes both an open strand and a thematic strand. There are 20 topics in the thematic strand, with research themes including heat, electricity, grid flexibility, EV grants, energy modelling, maritime transport, energy poverty, offshore wind, critical raw materials, behavioural change and bioenergy, among others.  

Project duration can be between 12 to 48 months, depending on the specific needs and structure of the project. Proposals intending to recruit PhD students must apply for a 48-month project duration. The maximum SEAI funding available per project is €1.25M, inclusive of overheads.

The SEAI Call webinar can be viewed here.

Contact: Ms Christina Rushe via christina.rushe@dcu.ie and Dr Ecaterina McDonagh via ecaterina.mcdonagh@dcu.ie

TORA deadline: 09 July 2025

Call deadline: 17 July 2025, 4:00pm

The Research Ireland New Foundations Scheme is now open. This scheme supports eligible researchers who intend to pursue research, networking and/or dissemination activities within and across the diversity of disciplines. Eligible applicants must, on the call deadline, hold a contract of sufficient duration with an Eligible Research Body to carry out the proposed research from the project start date until the project end date.

This year, the Call features two open strands, together with six strands run in partnership with government departments and agencies, and the civil society sector. These eight strands are summarised below (see the call document for further details):

Strand 1a: Enhancing Civic Society (max €12,000)
Strand 1c: Interdisciplinary Research Networking Awards (max €10,000)
Strand 4b: Education for Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development New Foundations Awards, in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Irish Aid), the Department of Education and Youth, and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (max €10,000)
Strand 10: Exploring Policing and Community Safety New Foundations Award, in partnership with the Policing and Community Safety Authority (max €20,000)
Strand 11: Valuing Volunteering, in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (max €25,000)
Strand 15: Social Enterprise Impact, Green Transition and Legal Form, in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (max €20,000)
Strand 17: The Heritage Council New Foundations Award, in partnership with the Heritage Council (max €10,000)
Strand 18: Fostering democratic engagement amongst communities experiencing barriers and disengagement, in partnership with The Electoral Commission (An Coimisiún Toghcháin) (max €15,000)

For further information on this Call, visit the Call’s website here.

Contact: Dr Ecaterina McDonagh via ecaterina.mcdonagh@dcu.ie

TORA deadline: 08 September 2025

Call deadline: 16 September 2025 5:00pm CEST

The MSCA4Ukraine Fellowships Programme is the European Commission’s dedicated scheme to support displaced researchers from Ukraine, enabling them to continue their work safely in Europe. The objective of the grant is to provide this support in the form of fellowships to displaced researchers from Ukraine to continue or resume their research activities at host organisations established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Support to individual researchers should be open to all domains of research and innovation and aligned with the general objectives and principles of the MSCA, including scientific excellence, skills and career development, inter-sectoral mobility, equal opportunities and inclusiveness, attractive working conditions, work/life balance, while fostering open science, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Support will include training activities that should respond to well-identified needs in various research and innovation areas, with appropriate references to inter- and multi-disciplinary fields. They should be primarily focused on developing new scientific knowledge through original research on personalised projects. Complementary training should also be provided to develop key transferable skills and competences common to all fields, foster innovation and entrepreneurship, and promote and (where appropriate) reward Open Science practices.

Short-term secondments of researchers to organisations other than those recruiting them, especially based in Ukraine if conditions allow, and including in third countries non-associated to Horizon Europe, are encouraged when relevant, feasible and beneficial for the researchers and in line with the research objectives. Inter-sectoral secondments are particularly encouraged to increase the employability of the researchers outside academia.

Supported researchers can be either doctoral candidates (i.e. already enrolled in a doctoral programme leading to the award of a doctoral degree) or postdoctoral researchers (i.e. in possession of a doctoral degree). They must be either Ukrainian nationals, stateless persons, or nationals from third countries other than Ukraine, residing in Ukraine, who have been displaced on or after 24 February 2022.

The duration of each individual fellowship is to be determined by the beneficiaries in agreement with the recruiting organisations, with a maximum duration of two years.

Contact: Ms Christina Rushe via christina.rushe@dcu.ie and Dr Ecaterina McDonagh via ecaterina.mcdonagh@dcu.ie

TORA deadline: 18 September 2025

Call deadline: 26 September 2025

The ‘Research Ireland – Gas Networks Ireland Innovation Challenge’ invites multidisciplinary research teams to develop breakthrough technologies in renewable gas, energy system integration and artificial intelligence. The challenge fund will support transformative innovations with the potential to decarbonise the national gas network and contribute to climate action targets.

This joint initiative, co-funded by Research Ireland and by Gas Networks Ireland through its Gas Innovation Fund, is a phased funding programme. Successful teams from eligible research bodies in Ireland will be awarded up to €200,000 and will work through a series of phases to develop their idea. An overall prize award of €1 million will be available to the team that demonstrates the highest potential for transformative impact. The prize will enable the winning team to generate high-impact research and accelerate the development of sustainable energy technologies.

The structure of the Programme is based on the Research Ireland Future Innovator Prize Sustainable Development Goals Challenge Programme, and will comprise three phases:

Concept (six months’ duration, with successful teams securing up to €50,000)
Seed (12 months’ duration, with teams securing up to €150,000), and:
Prize (up to 24 months, with teams competing for an overall prize of €1 million).

The Research Ireland – Gas Networks Ireland Innovation Challenge has two overarching challenge themes to guide the collaborative engagement and research activity under this programme Call, namely:

The Energy System Integration Challenge: This seeks to support the development of solutions to accelerate the optimisation and integration of the energy system in Ireland’s transition to a low carbon economy. There are two broad themes under this Challenge: (a) the integration of renewable gases at a local and regional level; and (b) the development of Artificial Intelligence-based solutions for intelligent gas network performance diagnostics.
The Biomethane and Biohydrogen Challenge will seek to support the development of solutions which improve the efficiency, efficacy and commercial viability of (1) biomethane and (2) biohydrogen production, including extraction and utilisation of the by-products.

The Call for applications is now open to eligible research teams across Ireland. Full details are available here: Research Ireland Gas Networks Ireland Innovation Challenge - Research Ireland.

Contact: Dr Martin O'Donoghue via martin.odonoghue@dcu.ie and Dr Ecaterina McDonagh via ecaterina.mcdonagh@dcu.ie

TORA deadline: 24 October 2025

Call deadline: 31 October 2025

The ECIU Seed Programme 2025 has been launched, with several changes and updates from the 2024 Call. Consortia of researchers, including three participating ECIU institutions (Dublin City University, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Kaunas University of Technology, Łódź University of Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidade de Aveiro), are invited to develop a proposal under one of two strands:

SP 1: Blended Mobility to Create New Networks
SP 2: Seed Projects for Existing Consortia

Further details and Call documents can be found on the ECIU Seed Programme webpage.

Contact: Dr Amy Hall via amy.hall@dcu.ie