AgriTech Cluster at Munster Technological University has launched a new AgriTech innovation programme for industry. The AgriTEAM Innovator is a collaborative approach to ignite and accelerate innovation, providing Ireland’s AgriTech companies with a smooth, facilitated pathway to generate and innovate new product and process ideas. Undertaken in the form of one-to-one workshops, the AgriTEAM Innovator provides a structured approach to develop and validate ideas to ensure new innovations are successful.
On 26th May the cluster hosted an online innovation discovery workshop in conjunction with it@cork as part of TechFest 2022. Participants heard from Dr. Padraig Doolan, Technical Advisor of Enterprise Ireland, about the opportunity to get involved in the Agile Innovation Fund.
Nick Cotter of Cotter AgriTech and Robert Shine of SAMCO also participated and shared their insights in the workshop and spoke about how working with Enterprise Ireland has helped them to accelerate their own innovations.
Ireland provides the perfect opportunity for AgriTech innovation due to the natural agricultural advantage due to the high-quality of grass in the country for livestock feeding and the growing indigenous digital technology sector alone has sales of over €2 billion per annum. The agri-food sector is particularly important for Ireland’s economic growth as it accounts for nearly 170,000 jobs and in 2020 the value of agri-food exports was €14.2 billion, a 60% increase since 2010.
With the population of the world growing at a rapid pace, it is important now more than ever to take the opportunities to bring more innovative solutions to the table.
According to a report published by Enterprise Ireland, the global production of food will have to increase by 70% in 2050 compared to today in order to meet the demands of the population. While this may seem daunting, it could create the perfect opportunity to accelerate growth in the AgriTech space as Ireland has a competitive advantage in the sector with the ability to produce food to provide for 35 million people while only having a population of less than 5 million.
Contact info@agritechireland.ie if you would like to get involved in one of the project opportunities identified or if you would like to get involved in the AgriTech cluster.
For information on the Agile Innovation Fund: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/funding-supports/company/esetablish-sme-funding/agile-innovation.html
Check out the recording of the workshop below:
