The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has announced that it awarded more than €20 million in Government funding to 34 new national energy research awards under the SEAI National Energy Funding Programme in 2025. This comprises of 25 Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) projects and 9 Energise Fellowships. Funding for these awards is provided by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.
The RD&D projects funded by SEAI span small, medium, and large-scale initiatives across critical energy areas including offshore wind, bioenergy, district heating, green hydrogen, sustainable transport, forecasting, smart buildings, carbon capture, and environmental and climate targets.
The Energise Fellowships Programme supports early-career and mid-career researchers, building national research capacity, strengthening the Irish energy research ecosystem, bridging the research to policy gap and accelerating the development of future research leaders. The 2025 Energise Fellowships are supporting research across areas including energy poverty alleviation, offshore renewable energy, carbon capture, energy efficient buildings, biofuels, and green hydrogen.
In 2025, SEAI collaborated with three co?funding partners in the RD&D call, each supporting strategically important research themes:
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – co-funding research on sustainable feedstocks for anaerobic digestion
Climate Change Advisory Council – co-funding the development of low?emission and equitable transport strategies
Met Éireann – co-funding a project on renewable energy forecasting in Ireland's changing climate
SEAI acknowledges the value of these partnerships in scaling up national research impact and supporting evidence-based climate and energy policy.
The 2025 SEAI National Energy Funding Programme awarded grants to project leads in several of Ireland's leading universities, technological institutions, and public-service and private-sector research organisations nationwide. These include University College Cork, University of Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University of Limerick, Maynooth University, Technological University of Shannon, TU Dublin, Munster Technological University, Atlantic Technological University, Teagasc, the International Energy Research Centre (IERC), Tipperary Energy Agency, HeatGrid Ireland Ltd and Dowmann Limited.
The programme will benefit a broad selection of organisations across all projects and fellowships with 16 receiving funding as leads or partners and 29 as collaborators.
Speaking on today's announcement, Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O'Brien, TD said: "I am delighted to see the award of these 34 innovative energy research projects and fellowships. Ireland recently reached a landmark of 8GW of renewable energy. The best way to deliver long term energy independence and affordable costs for Irish households and businesses is to continue to deploy home-grown renewable energy at scale. Recent events in the Middle East have reiterated the importance of reducing Ireland's dependence on imported fossil fuels. These projects will explore important areas of research, that in turn can enhance the delivery of sustainable, secure, and affordable energy for all."
William Walsh, CEO at SEAI, added: "These projects have the potential to transform Ireland's energy system. From floating wind, to using AI to enhance the efficiency of renewables, this research is on the cutting-edge of technology and international best practice.
"Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels will mean a cleaner, healthier, more resilient and competitive future for our country. It will reduce our energy bills and put our country on a more secure footing. At SEAI, we fund the research that will make that vision a reality. Congratulations to the teams awarded this funding and thank you for the significant contribution you have made, and...