About the fund
The New Zealand Fund for Global Partnerships in Livestock Emissions Research (GPLER) was an international research fund set up by the New Zealand Government. It supported the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA).
From 2011 to 2020, the fund promoted global research into mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from pastoral livestock farming. It looked for solutions to 4 research challenges:
- manipulating rumen function
- reducing nitrous oxide emissions from soils
- manipulating rates of soil carbon change
- improving tools and practices for minimising farm system-level greenhouse gas emissions intensity.
There were 4 funding rounds, which supported projected for up to 4 years. In total $19.79 million of co-funding was awarded to 18 projects. These involved New Zealand and international partners from 12 countries.
Reducing emissions from livestock farming is critical
Livestock emissions account for about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are from:
- enteric fermentation
- manure management systems
- manure deposited directly on pasture.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming is of critical importance if the sector is to respond to climate change in a meaningful way at the same time as sustainably contributing to food production.
GPLER-funded projects
Round 4
Project title |
Partners |
Total project value |
Full inversion tillage to accelerate soil carbon sequestration |
Plant & Food Research led this project International partners: Germany and Ireland |
$1.90m |
Reducing hydrogen and methyl-compound production to mitigate rumen methane |
AgResearch led this project International partners: Japan and the USA |
$1.70m |
Discovery of new nitrification inhibitors: Phase 2 |
Lincoln University led this project International partners: China and the UK |
$1.85m |
Antibody binding to antigenic targets in the rumen |
AgResearch led this project International partners: Argentina and Australia |
$1.43m |
Rumen microbiomes to predict methane |
AgResearch led this project International partner: Australia |
$0.74m |
Mitigating N2O emissions by optimising irrigation management |
Lincoln University led this project International partner: Australia |
$0.62m |
The N20 switch |
Lincoln University led this project International partner: Germany |
$0.35m |
Chemical di-nitrogen formation bypassing nitrous oxide |
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research led this project International partner: the USA |
$0.30m |
Round 3
Project title |
Partners |
Total project value |
Discovery of new nitrification inhibitors |
Lincoln University led this project International partner: Australia |
$0.75m |
Farming microbes for better futures |
Otago University led this project International partners: Canada and Norway |
$0.22m |
Management options for increasing soil carbon under grasslands |
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research led this project International partners: France and Scotland |
$2.25m |
Round 2
Project title |
Partners |
Total project value |
Reducing N2O emissions from urine patches through accelerating N2O reduction |
Otago University led this project International partners: Ireland and Norway |
$1.1m |
Fast-tracking development of methanogen-specific inhibitors |
AgResearch led this project International partner: the USA |
$1.16m |
Disruption of rumen microbial interspecies hydrogen transfer to reduce ruminant methane emissions |
AgResearch led this project International partner: Germany |
$0.10m |
Round 1
Project title |
Partners |
Total project value |
Deep sequencing the rumen microbiome |
AgResearch led this project International partners: Australia, France, Ireland, and the USA |
$2.0m |
Accelerated discovery of methanogen-specific inhibitors |
AgResearch led this project International partners: Australia, Japan, and the USA |
$1.12m |
Vaccine to reduce methane emissions in ruminants |
AgResearch led this project International partner: Australia |
$1.0m |
Animal delivery of DCD in urine by provision in feeds |
AgResearch led this project International partners: Australia and Ireland |
$1.2m |