Entries are now open for the 2025 Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena Awards competition, which will return to this year’s National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly from 16th to 18th September. The competition offers Irish agritech innovators the opportunity to showcase their products and services to potential partners and customers at one of Europe’s largest outdoor events.
There are three categories in this year’s competition. The Start-Up Innovator of the Year award includes a €10,000 prize, as well as mentoring and supports from specialist Enterprise Ireland advisors. The Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena Champion Award is for established companies with a focus on scaling and innovation, while the Green Impact Award is for a company whose innovation is focused on sustaining the development of food and farming for future generations.
As with every industry, agriculture is still assessing the full potential of AI. The technology is giving developers the opportunity to look at things they couldn’t do up until now
This is the 12th year of Enterprise Ireland involvement in the Innovation Arena, says James Maloney, the Innovation Arena Manager for Enterprise Ireland. “Last year, we had 43 applicants for Innovation Arena Awards,” he says. “We shortlisted 30 companies, and they were interviewed and assessed by our panel late June and early July. Three companies in each category were selected to present their innovations on stage at the Innovation Arena and compete for the awards.”
Other shortlisted applicants are offered exhibition space within the Innovation Arena.
Another feature of the event is the Agritech Hub, which allows previous Innovation Arena participants to return to exhibit new iterations of their products or new innovations.
The Innovation Arena has become an institution in the agritech calendar each year
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a significant theme in the awards in recent years. “As with every industry, agriculture is still assessing the full potential of AI,” Maloney notes. “The technology is giving developers the opportunity to look at things they couldn’t do up until now. For example, AudioAI can listen to machines and assess their performance based on the noises they make.”
There is also a lot of interest in the animal health side. “It’s about trying to diagnose conditions earlier before symptoms present by looking at things that are happening in the animals. We are seeing the emergence of resistant strains of pathogens and bacteria in both crops and animals, so anything that can help to reduce antibiotic and chemical usage will be very valuable. Hopefully, AI will help with that.”
Last year’s winner of the Start-Up Innovator of the Year award was Reap Interactive for its BovinePlus product, which monitors cattle in a herd on an individual basis, sending key performance information on weight gain and other metrics back to farmers each day.
Enterprise Ireland is a well-recognised and highly respected organisation, so when you say you got an award from them, it starts the conversation off at a different level
Farmers look at herd average when monitoring performance, explains Reap Interactive CEO and co-founder Kieran Supple. “They are leaving a lot of profitability behind,” he says. ”About 20 per cent of the animals in a herd will outperform and another 20 per cent will underperform. The top performers can be finished earlier than the rest, saving on feed and so on, while some underperforming animals will never make it to profitability, so it is best to remove them from the herd at an early stage.”
The product is connected to the water supply in the animal environment. “The animal steps on the device with their two front feet, and it reads their identity tag and measures their weight and the amount of water they drink,” says Supple.
“The amount of water consumed is a key health indicator. If we know the animal is drinking a certain amount of water eight times a day and that behaviour changes, we can send a health alert to the farmer.”
Business has been boosted by the award, he adds. “Enterprise Ireland is a well-recognised and highly respected organisation, so when you say you got an award from them, it starts the conversation off at a different level. When we are speaking to potential customers, it gets them to sit up and think a bit more.”
Easyfix took home the inaugural Green Impact Award for its E-Pulse system which solves slurry handling problems for farmers whilst also benefiting the environment.
“Slurry is a valuable resource for farmers,” says business development director Ronan Boyle. “After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the price of fertiliser went from €300 to €1,000 per tonne. The E-Pulse system is the first of its kind. It uses electro-photo-magnetic induction to put an electro-magnetic pulse through the slurry. It stimulates the microbiology in the slurry and makes the decomposition process more aerobic. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and makes it a better fertiliser to apply to land.”
The product was officially launched in the spring of this year. “It has been approved by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for 60 per cent funding under the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS). Business is going really well and the award generated publicity and awareness of the product for us,” says Boyle.
Maloney concludes: “The Innovation Arena has become an institution in the agritech calendar each year, as it gives Irish agritech entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet face to face with potential customers and key stakeholders from across the industry.”
The closing date for entries to the 2025 Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena Awards is Friday, June 6th, 2025. See enterprise-ireland.com/en/innovation-arena for more details.
