About the Project
An Overview:
The SCEENE EIP is a 4½ year project, based on the Loop Head peninsula, West Clare, but with wider applicability. It is a community first, farmer led project, focused on soil carbon enhancement, the reduction of nutrient run off, and saving on the need for chemical fertilisers, while trialling the potential for circular bio economy solutions. Farming in the Loop Head peninsula is characterised by shallow, rocky soils, and intensive dairy and livestock farming, which leads to surplus manure and nutrient runoff. This runoff has the potential to contaminate local waterbodies and wider catchments.
It also contributes to soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. The EIP will develop a circular, community-led approach, that leverages technological innovation, and ecosystem-based strategies to tackle these issues. Central to this vision is the integration of biochar production, from local organic waste, and the use of mycorrhizal fungi, for use in the cultivation of carbon-sequestering crops. The SCEENE EIP is co-funded by the European Union and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, with a budget of €1.75 million. Like similar EIPs, it will test new ideas and practices which can be used more widely by farmers and others to improve local ecosystems, farm sustainability, resource efficiency and productivity.
Who is involved?
Lead Coordinator: Loop Head Together is the lead project partner and overall coordinator of the SCEENE EIP. Loop Head Together is a company limited by guarantee (CLG) based in West Clare. It acts in a coordinating capacity, as a grass roots initiative, supported by almost fifty local groups and organisations, across the Loop Head Peninsula in West Clare. As Project Lead for the SCEENE EIP, Loop Head Together CLG will be the main point of contact with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM). It will lead and coordinate the implementation of the various work elements of the EIP and Chair EIP Operational Group. In addition, it will be responsible for all reporting and financial management, and will direct, oversee and coordinate project tasks across participant Loop Head farmers and coordinate the role of external contractors in a timely manner.
Who Is Involved: The SCEENE EIP includes numerous stakeholders including Loop Head Together, local farmers, experienced researchers, leading academics from the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) and University College Dublin. It also includes Clare County Council, and others with extensive expertise in managing and delivering collaborative projects focused on soil health, nutrient management, circular agriculture and the circular bioeconomy, together with dissemination work, farmer to farmer, and community outreach.
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