European Commission President visits Grangegorman
President of TU Dublin Professor David FitzPatrick welcomed the Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD and President Ursula von der Leyen to Grangegorman. On arrival to the Central Quad, President Ursula von der Leyen was greeted by EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath and Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European Affairs.
Donning TU Dublin labcoats, the delegation met with TU Dublin researchers Dr Catherine Barry-Ryan from the School of Food Science & Environmental Health and colleague Dr Lubna Ahmed from ESHI, who spoke about two EU funded projects, AleHoop and Up4Health. Two ESHI PhD students Hitika Shah and Maame Manful also gave a quick demonstration.
- ALEHOOP - Current protein sources are becoming unsustainable from an economic and environmental perspective. Moreover, demand for alternative low-cost substitutes is increasing in the food and agricultural sectors. ALEHOOP aims to address these challenges by extracting low-cost dietary proteins from algae-based and plant residual biomass. This is done using macroalgae and legume-based bio-refineries. The resulting proteins could be used in human food, including healthy snack bars, sports drinks and meat substitutes, and animal feed for chickens, pigs and fish.
- Up4Health is a €4m SME-led project focusing on the circular economy. Up4Health aims to deliver a sustainable and cost-effective production process to extract and upcycle valuable ingredients from olive, grape and nut by-products. These ingredients will be integrated into functional foods, nutraceutical supplements and cosmetics, among others.