The positions are being developed through Just Transition funding.
Nearly 100 jobs are being created in the midlands.
Empower Eco is developing the positions through an investment from the Just Transition Fund.
€1.1 million is being proved to Empower Eco, which is is a collaboration between Athlone Institute of Technology, Bord na Móna, Enterprise Ireland, Offaly County Council, LEO Offaly, Limerick Institute of Technology, Maynooth University, and Kilcormac Development Association.
The initiative is aiming to use the regions natural resources and biodiversity to create 97 jobs over the next two years.
It will launch the Food for Good range in 2021, which will produce Bell Heather honey and exotic gourmet mushrooms, along with a number of other products.
The workers will be trained in biodiversity and food production.
The Partnership between the eight groups is also planning to support climate solutions across the midlands it transitions from brown to green energy.
Prof Ciarán Ó Catháin, President of AIT, said: “I welcome this very exciting news and congratulate all partners involved. It symbolises an ambitious, transformative initiative for the Athlone Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology as we also transition to becoming a new Technological university. Empower Eco, the sustainability imperative, is about using the natural world in clever ways to meet human needs. Post COVID-19, our region and our country has an even greater urgency to deal with these challenges”.
Professor Neil Rowan, Director of Bioscience Research Institute and Founding Director of Empower Eco, said: “Empower Eco will provide an intellectual and innovative powerhouse for the Midlands that will actualize its immense potential for creating a greener future, in addition to helping with our immediate transition to move beyond COVID-19 pandemic. The project, which will support peatland innovation along with important carbon sequestration, represents the culmination of a life-time academic journey that has been underpinned by the activities of my 26 PhD students across many exciting collaborative projects spanning three decades of pollination and eco-system service management to circular economy activities.”
Kieran Mulvey, Just Transition Commissioner, said: “Empower Eco will help meet innovative and inspiring plans from businesses, local authorities and communities in the midlands who are committed to creating a green and sustainable economy for the region. Empower Eco is ideally structured and positioned to meet timely training and reskilling so local businesses and communities can adjust to a low-carbon transition. Empower Eco will support and enable climate solutions across the midlands where it will also add value to many of the 47 projects provisionally funded under Just Transition Fund that totalled €27.8m.”
Rita Shah, CEO of Shabra Recycling and Chairperson of Empower Eco, welcomed the funding endorsement ‘this constitutes a landmark event for the midlands as it accelerates the development of Ireland’s first Eco-Innovation Hub, a timely development of key science, engineering and technology initiatives linked seamlessly to social enterprise, education and training in order to unlock the immence potential of the Midlands’.
Anna Marie Delaney, Chief Executive of Offaly County Council, welcomed the announcement of funding for the Empower Eco initiative and the emerging partnership between Bord na Móna and key stakeholders in STEM innovation. She said that with other partners, Offaly County Council shares an ambition to create new and sustainable opportunities that will positively impact those most affected by decarbonisation, their communities and the local economy.
Dr Michael Brougham, Regional Director, Enterprise Ireland Midlands, Mideast and West, added: “Empower Eco is one of the most exciting and far reaching projects that I have been involved in during my time as Regional Director in Enterprise Ireland. Not only will we see new sustainability companies emerge through the Accelerate Green programme but Empower eco also aims to have significant impact with SMEs throughout the broader Midlands and also nationally.”
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