€8m GrassWise Project Launches to Benchmark EU Grassland Data

Grasslands cover 34% of the EU's agricultural area, yet their full value remains under-recognised and underutilised. That figure, cited by Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher at the formal launch of the €8 million GrassWise project, frames the scale of what the new European research initiative is taking on.

GrassWise held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, November 3, at the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre in Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork. The four-year project brings together 13 European countries plus New Zealand, working through 20 research organisations.

Professor Michael O'Donovan, head of the Teagasc Grassland Science Research Department, coordinates the project. Ireland leads a grassland-focused Horizon Europe project for the first time — a fact Kelleher said "places Ireland firmly as a European leader in grassland science", appropriate given the country's tradition of grass-based milk and meat production.

What will GrassWise actually do?

The project's core task is generating and benchmarking grassland data across Europe's nine pedoclimatic zones (the distinct soil-climate regions stretching from Boreal in the north to Mediterranean in the south). That geographic spread is the project's distinguishing feature — no previous effort has attempted to measure and compare grassland performance at this scale across the continent.

To build the dataset, researchers will integrate three streams:

• Partner farmer networks supplying on-farm measurements;
• Satellite observations covering wide geographic areas;
• Existing grassland decision-support tools and datasets.

The work will involve 135 partner farms and nine communities, all feeding into an integrated European grassland data platform. That platform is the deliverable with the longest shelf life. O'Donovan said the project will "measure, monitor, and benchmark European grasslands within the project life span", with the ambition of developing long-term grassland datasets that European grassland farmers can use beyond the project's four-year runtime. "That makes this project unique," he said.

What changes for farmers?

The concrete output is a new generation of decision-support tools (digital systems that translate data into management recommendations) aimed at helping farmers improve grassland management and adopt practices the project describes as profitable, low-emission and circular — meaning nutrients and resources are recycled within the farming system rather than bought in and lost.

For livestock producers grazing grass, better data means better decisions: when to graze, how much grass is growing, and how performance in one region compares with another facing similar soil and climate conditions.

Dr Deirdre Hennessy of University College Cork (UCC), who leads one of GrassWise's work packages, said: "Through field-based research and data analyses, GrassWise aims to provide farmers with data and knowledge to improve the productivity of grassland-based livestock production systems as well as enhance feed quality, nutrient use efficiency, grassland biodiversity, and other grassland ecosystem services."

That list matters because it puts productivity and environmental performance in the same frame — feed quality and nutrient use efficiency alongside biodiversity and ecosystem services such as carbon storage and water regulation.

Who is involved?

The project network spans Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Romania, Serbia and New Zealand. New Zealand's inclusion brings in one of the world's most advanced pasture-based livestock sectors as a benchmarking reference.

Teagasc's role as coordinator builds on Moorepark's long-running grassland research programme, which has measured pasture performance on Irish dairy farms for decades. O'Donovan described the project as "ambitious in its objectives but realistic".

"Action-ready, rooted in real farming practice, the project is well aligned with the EU's sustainability goals, but is really focussed on developing more insights in grassland science across Europe," he said.

Kelleher echoed that timing argument: "This project is timely as it will develop new innovations to better capitalise on the sustainability of grassland systems across the nine European pedoclimatic zones."

What happens next?

With the Moorepark launch complete, the 20 partner organisations now begin field measurement and data integration across the 135 partner farms. Farmers should watch for the first benchmarking outputs from the nine pedoclimatic zones as the four-year programme gets under way, with the integrated European grassland data platform and its decision-support tools expected to follow within the project lifespan.