NovaUCD

Last Chance to Apply for FAST-IP 2025/26 Applications are closing very shortly for the FAST-IP 2025/26 programme which starts in September. Cliodhna Heffernan outlines what elements of the FAST-IP process she found most useful during the last year. FAST-IP is a specialist agrifood technology innovation programme delivered over a 12-month period by University College Dublin in collaboration with Teagasc and hosted at the AgTechUCD Innovation Centre in Co. Kildare. It is designed for mid-career professionals, across all industries, who want to drive change to real-world problems using needs-led innovation. FAST-IP, a graduate diploma programme, includes; ·  8-10 weeks spent immersed in agriculture environments including farms and food processing companies throughout the programme. ·  Mentorship, real-world learning and peer collaboration ·  Access to Ireland’s leading innovation centre ·  €38,000 tax-free scholarship. To find out more about FAST-IP visit: https://lnkd.in/eysvmcvE Applications are closing very shortly for the FAST-IP 2025/26 programme which starts in September. Don’t miss out apply for FAST-IP today via: https://bit.ly/42QylXA FAST-IP is supported under the Innovators’ Initiative Programme co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027. #euinmyregion Enterprise Ireland Southern Regional Assembly IRDG - Driving Irish Innovation UCD Innovation Academy UCD Foundation UCD School of Biosystems & Food Engineering UCD College of Engineering & Architecture UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences FRS Recruitment Liam Cronin Edel M. Nicholas Holden

Great news for Daniel Coen and the Skippio team.

Join us for the Start-up, VC & Broker networking lunch event! Come and join us at Republic of Work, Cork on Thursday 21st August for our live panel discussion and lunchtime networking event. Places are limited so you must RSVP in advance here: https://lnkd.in/esuRzCmj Exciting guest panel to be revealed soon! Keep an eye out! Agenda: 12.00 Registration & Grab a coffee/ early lunch 12.30 Panel discussion 1.15 Q&A 1.30 - 2pm - Refreshments and Networking NovaUCD Google Republic of Work Dogpatch Labs HBAN BVP Mark Farrelly Elliott Griffin Marie Nolan, BComm, QFA Ryan O' Neill Alison Mac Sweeney

Ireland’s e-commerce and retail technology start-up community is rapidly gaining global recognition for its innovation, agility, and export potential. Anchored by a strong digital infrastructure and a supportive ecosystem of accelerators, investors, and government initiatives, Irish start-ups are developing solutions that span online retail platforms, AI-driven customer engagement, logistics optimisation, and payment technologies. Great to see Assiduous, headquartered at NovaUCD, along with Manna Air Delivery and Conjura, both alumni of the NovaUCD ecosystem, among Thinkbusiness.ie's Irish e-commerce and retail tech companies to watch in 2026. via John Kennedy Fergal Meegan Barry Murphy, CFA Bobby Healy Fran Quilty https://lnkd.in/eQxbd9H9

Great to see Prof. Frank McDermott MRIA’s collaboration with Silicate, an Irish start-up headquartered at NovaUCD, included in this feature piece on the climate crisis in today’s The Irish Times by Sean Duke. Prof. McDermott, a geochemist at UCD School of Earth Sciences, has spent many years investigating how rocks absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. In particular, his research focuses on carbonic acid, formed when CO2 dissolves in rainwater, and its interaction with common rocks in Ireland such as limestone and basalt. Human activity has accelerated CO2 emissions, but the Earth’s ability to draw it down via rock weathering hasn’t kept up. A proposed fix Prof. McDermott is researching involves grinding certain rocks into powder, spreading them on farmland or coastlines and enabling the rocks to absorb atmospheric carbon faster than they otherwise would. This approach, which is called “enhanced weathering” has been trialled at sites in Co. Wexford by Prof. McDermott working with the Silicate team that has successfully used ground limestone and crushed concrete to capture CO2 and provide benefits to agriculture by adjusting soil pH levels. UCD Research UCD Earth Institute UCD Sustainability Maurice Bryson Megan Carroll Kelsey Leet https://lnkd.in/eq__mWe6

The Output Sports journey has a lot of pinch yourself moments but this week has to be up their with one of the biggest yet with Red Bull HYROX Coaches Camp 2025 at Silverstone and Red Bull racing. So proud of our team for executing shipping all 55 world-leading coaches (selected from over 2000 applicants) an Output kit and seamlessly completing pre and post travel readiness testing with the coaches! Day 1 was a blast in the Silverstone Escapade garages with our leaderboards and testing flowing all day as the coaches arrived to camp. Shout out Sam Carey Ian Murray Lauren Rantala and Thomas Lawlor for running this so well. It was all go as we then crunched the data to deliver a lecture on it the next day! Day 2 kicked off at 6am when Lauren Rantala put everyone through their paces with our recently designed conditioning workout which doubles as an athlete assessment. I then had the unforgettable experience of delivering the lecture on performance readiness, and the coaches' data, in the surreal location of a Hyrox Performance Center set up in the MK7 Red Bull racing HQ. Day 3, we got the full camp experience, running the Silverstone track, jumping in a rally car (which Output measured some > 3 G corners on) and watching a fitness race from the Silverstone pit stops. Unforgettable! I could not be more pumped for what Output can do to help make elite-level sports-science accessible to this community. Watch this space! Massive thanks to all the coaches for diving in to the testing and workouts we ran, Douglas Gremmen and team Hyrox for brainstorming us in to the camp and the top class Red Bull team including George Lilleywhite, Matthew Evans and Gabby Rudnick for pulling off such an outstanding event!

Today's Innovator to Watch in the The Irish Times is NestiFi which lets families invest together for kids. In June Niall Dennehy launched his latest venture, NestiFi, an AI-powered investment platform allowing parents, grandparents, relatives and friends to invest in a child's future as a group. "I've spent the last decade building technology at the intersection of trust, transparency and financial inclusion, and it struck me that families have no modern tools with which to build wealth together because most investment apps are built for individuals, not families." "I felt the time had come to replace siloed banking apps and old-school custodial accounts with a next-gen platform that would bring together traditional investing, blockchain assets and family-based financial literacy in one seamless experience." Families are a key market for NestiFi, but so are credit unions, financial advisers, financial institutions and fintechs interested in offering NestiFi as a value-added service to their clients. Investment in the business to date is running at about €250,000, and the company is currently raising a seed round of €1.5 million. The company's initial target market will be the US with Ireland and Europe to follow. A private beta launch is slated for the third quarter, with a full roll-out in the US to follow later this year. NestiFi is currently taking part in the AI Ecosystem Accelerator Programme run jointly by NovaUCD and CeADAR Ireland, while completing regulatory compliance in the US and guiding a pilot group of families through a test run of the app. Read the article via: https://lnkd.in/eNGU3nfD Find out more about NestiFi visit: https://www.nestifi.money/ AID:Tech

Congrats to Stephen O'Dwyer and the TrojanTrack team, fantastic news. Delighted to be working with the team as part of the current AI Ecosystem Accelerator Programme in partnership with CeADAR Ireland.

🚨 Last Chance – FAST-IP 2025 Applications Closing Soon 🚨 Hear from last year’s participants about how FAST-IP transformed their ideas into reality: ✔ Validating ideas with expert guidance ✔ Immersive learning & hands-on workshops ✔ Networking with researchers, industry leaders & entrepreneurs 12 months. €38,000 tax-free scholarship. Starts September 2025. Open to professionals from all sectors – not just agri. 🚨 Only 2 spaces left! 🔗 Apply now: https://lnkd.in/egzfS8Mv #weworkforyou #FASTIP #InnovationProgramme John Miller (Grad.Dip.CIPD) Maria Carey Assoc CIPD Bonnie Clancy Gerard Farrell NovaUCD AgTechUCD Innovation Centre Teagasc University College Dublin UCD Innovation Academy

Binarii Labs signs vital distribution deal with Trismart Group that will open up Middle East region for the Irish company via Thinkbusiness.ie, Ciaran McNamee Abdallah Haj Deeb Saken https://lnkd.in/emY95UXC