Department of Biological Sciences lead research in sperm biology to help meet growing demands of dairy and beef sectors

A cutting-edge approach to sperm biology and associated reproductive biotechnologies in a multi-million euro project led by the Department of Biological Sciences at UL will address the growing demands for increased sustainability in the dairy and beef sectors.

Professor Sean Fair has led a consortium that has been awarded €3.8 million through the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks programme for the BULLNET project.

He will coordinate the international project which has 23 partners across 7 countries. It will recruit 14 PhD students in the lifetime of the project with three PhDs graduating from UL.

Professor Fair explained that the project will assist the dairy and beef industries meet growing societal, environmental and economic demands of the sector when it comes to sustainability and to help meet climate action targets. The BullNet research programme is designed to unravel the complex underlying biology of compromised fertility of individual bulls. 

BullNet will also lead to the advancement of knowledge in how bull management strategies and semen processing affect the functional and molecular characteristics of sperm, thus opening scientific horizons for new applications in the area of assisted reproduction.

Europe-wide the prestigious EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks Action will support around 1,650 PhD researchers in 149 projects worth €429 million this year.

It is an extremely competitive initiative with some 946 eligible proposals submitted for this funding call with only 149 being funded.