Programme
Experience

Programme
Experience

An Immersive Learning Experience

At the heart of our programme is a distinctive commitment not just to research, but to developing the skills of iScholars in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation in order to advance research into meaningful solutions. To achieve this vision, three pillars of activity will comprise the programme, which all iScholars will participate in fully.

PhD Research Scholarship Programme

iScholars will undertake advanced doctoral research at higher education institutions throughout Ireland that will deliver world class PhD training as part of agreed research projects to address global grand challenges. These multi-disciplinary research projects will be led by our world leading academics.

Entrepreneurial, Leadership & Innovation Programme

iScholars will engage in a cutting edge, nationally delivered, multi-year, personal and professional development programme to master a set of core entrepreneurial, leadership and innovation skills and competencies, that will build the mindset to thrive as entrepreneurial leaders who are catalysts for innovation and sustainable growth.

Innovation Ecosystem

iScholars will be given access to an extensive range of business and innovation networks, opportunities to engage with leaders and mentors, participate in industry events and consultation groups to help them bring their research ideas into the real-world. This will include access to an extensive range of informal learning activities such as mentorship and menteeship schemes, inspiration sessions, hackathons, conferences and award ceremonies.

Innovate For Ireland Supports an expansive range of sustainability themes

Sustainable food and nutrition solutions​​

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Clean tech, energy solutions and energy resilience​

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Impact of emerging digital technologies on human experiences​

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Deep tech and digital transformation

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Digital technologies to resolve the challenges facing the natural world​

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Advanced green manufacturing: workplace of the future

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Changing societies: adaptation in cities, communities, education, work and culture​​

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Mitigating health impacts of climate change and pollution​

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Sustainable water, land use and natural resources management

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New models of healthcare​

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Innovation in infrastructure

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Green materials and the circular economy

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Participating higher education institutions

The following institutions are participating in the cohorts in 2024 and 2025.

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Join a global community of sustainability innovation leaders that will shape the future. Register your interest to become an iScholar.

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Sustainable food and nutrition solutions​

Solutions for sustainable, productive and resilient food systems in areas such as:

  • Methane emissions – solutions to measure, manage and reduce methane emissions from the agriculture sector.
  • Sustainable and regenerative agriculture – solutions that will enable the transformation to a low-input, low-impact agrifood sector, for example, through reduced/alternative fertiliser use, water efficiency, or fewer fossil-based or chemical inputs. ​
  • Alternative proteins – solutions to provide lower impact sources of protein across the food value chain for animals and humans.
  • Food waste/loss – solutions to reduce food loss and waste across the full breadth of the food supply chain.
  • Bioeconomy – solutions to transform and reuse biological resources into value-added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products as well as bioenergy.
  • Soil – solutions to preserve and restore healthy soils as an essential component of the climate transition and a sustainable agricultural sector.​

Clean tech, energy solutions and energy resilience

Solutions to accelerate Ireland’s transition to a clean and secure energy system in areas such as:​

  • Energy Storage – solutions to enable storage and ubiquitous use of energy generated from clean sources in application areas such as grid-level storage, transport and domestic use.
  • Energy Materials – solutions to advance clean energy technologies based on novel or innovative materials or through improved production and recycling technologies.​
  • Energy Efficiency – solutions to reduce our energy usage or to transition to cleaner energy sources, for example, through the reduction of energy usage in high-demand sectors.​
  • Low-carbon fuels – solutions for the production, distribution and usage of sustainable, low-carbon fuels, for example, biofuels, synthetic fuels or hydrogen.​
  • Energy Management – solutions to address challenges across the full breadth of energy management from the generation, transmission, distribution, and usage of energy.

Impact of emerging digital technologies on human experiences​

Solutions to accelerate Ireland’s transition to focus on the challenge of enhancing the connections between government, communities and people.

  • How digital technologies could enhance government processes and functions, create new value for the public through people-centric digital-first public services, and new ways to strengthen the connections between people, their communities and with government.​
  • Co-created technology-based innovations that empower citizens and communities to connect and engage with local and national government to address societal challenges.​
  • Supporting social justice and equality by e.g. eliminating bias in AI - as AI-based systems make more decisions for us, there is an important need to ensure that these systems do not reproduce and exacerbate existing social biases and forms of discrimination. 

Deep tech and digital transformation

Solutions to address the challenge of creating and applying disruptive digital technologies that will contribute to our national recovery and resilience, such as:

  • Ways to identify vulnerabilities in supply chains, and develop the best mitigation plans for high impact disruptions, to prevent disruption to public and private organisations.
  • Assessing cyber-resilience of national critical assets, to develop novel methods for cybersecurity.
  • Data driven risk identification models for predicting medicine shortages, as well as resilience models to plot the impact of different policy decisions on supply chains for medicines, for use by health policy makers and regulators.
  • Developing platforms, tools and solutions that can be used in a community-based setting in times of crises, such as extreme weather events.​

Digital technologies to resolve the challenges facing the natural world​

Solutions to focus on the challenge of enhancing Ireland’s capabilities in crisis prediction and response, such as:

  • Development of a novel flood forecasting system for prediction of coastal-fluvial floods with the aim of pioneering a solution in the form of a robust, cost-effective and time-efficient framework for flood forecasting in conurbations across Ireland.
  • AI driven solutions fusing satellite and drone imagery to accurate map the health and quality of forests, protecting and expanding them, and their carbon capture potential.​
  • Floating treatment wetlands – a solution to remove pollutants and pathogens present in polluted surface water to achieve a healthy environment, prevent water-related diseases, achieve "zero pollution", cut greenhouse gas emissions, and control global warming. ​

Advanced green manufacturing: workplace of the future

Solutions to current and future challenges in Ireland becoming climate neutral and resilient by 2050 such as​:

  • Hydrogen – solutions associated with the clean generation, storage and safe usage of hydrogen to fully exploit Ireland’s potential advantage to produce and supply this clean fuel.
  • Greenhouse gas removals – nature-based and technology solutions to sustainably capture, store and recycle GHGs from the atmosphere for complete decarbonisation of our society and to limit global temperature rises. ​
  • Low-carbon construction materials – solutions to reduce embodied carbon in the materials used in our built environment and to develop novel and sustainable alternatives.
  • Energy storage – solutions to increase penetration of renewables, deployment of electric vehicles and electrify difficult-to-decarbonise sectors such as aviation.

Changing societies: adaptation in cities, communities, education, work and culture​

Solutions to support a sustainable future for Ireland’s urban and rural populations looking at areas including:

  • Built environment – solutions that will address the impact of our built environment, for example, through construction materials, energy efficiency and enabling energy neutral or positive energy communities.
  • Transport and mobility – solutions for clean transport in cities, towns and rural communities, in areas such as planning and modelling, novel modes of transport, driving modal shifts and enabling technologies.​
  • Resilient infrastructure – solutions for sustainable provision of power, water, waste management, transport and other services to communities leveraging new technologies or nature-based approaches.

​ ​ ​ Mitigating health impacts of climate change and pollution​

Solutions to ensure clean and healthy air, water and soil for humans, animals and plants such as:​

  • Adaptation – solutions to make our environment resilient to current and future impacts of climate change.
  • Measurement and modelling – solutions to enable improved monitoring of environmental quality parameters for soil, air, water and biodiversity in order to understand and address the sources of environmental damage. ​
  • Pollutant prevention and removal – solutions to remove pollutants at source or thoses already in the environment. ​
  • Restoration – solutions to restore and protect for future generations our natural environment.​
  • Natural capital – solutions to understand the value and benefits of nature for our society and economy.

Sustainable water, land use and natural resources management

Solutions to combat climate change, sustainably use the oceans, seas and terrestrial ecosystems, such as:

  • Farm Zero – a carbon neutral dairy farm.
  • AI2Peat – leveraging AI along with domain expert knowledge from the field to assess and continually monitor Ireland’s peatlands in a structured manner.
  • A solar-driven, 'green', and cost-efficient approach to eliminate substances of concern from irrigation water and wastewater streams.​
  • Provision of microbiological water quality data in a time-frame that enables rapid decision-making and risk mitigation.
  • A systems-based digital tool to assess Irish agricultural land use and management interventions on climate change mitigation, offsetting and reducing environmental pollution to achieve the 2050 roadmap.

New models of healthcare​

Solutions which ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, such as:​

  • Applying virtual/augmented reality to tele-rehabilitation of conditions such as stroke, heart failure and chronic respiratory diseases.
  • Using big data and AI to develop novel biomarkers for the earlier diagnosis of conditions such as diabetes, breast cancer and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.
  • Integrating disparate data from multiple different healthcare systems, to improve effective decision making support tools for healthcare staff and other key decision makers in the healthcare system.
  • Developing transformative and innovative approaches to the allocation of specialist palliative care in the community supporting the needs of patients, families, and healthcare workers. ​
  • Supporting the development of health literacy in adolescents, to be proactive in providing a foundation for positive lifelong health. ​

Innovation in infrastructure

Solutions to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation, such as:

Green materials and the circular economy​

Solutions where resources are not consumed but recovered in a system that is continuous and long-lasting, with the goal of keeping them functioning at their highest potential, such as:

  • Recycling waste battery products into a novel material, that can be transformed into fresh lithium and cobalt, for new batteries.
  • Decontaminating and upcycling critically contaminated post-consumer plastic waste into usable polymer building blocks, which can be reintroduced into the economy.
  • Circular agri-waste – removing phosphorous and nitrogen from subsurface drainage systems for re-use in fertilisers.

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