in association with
Enterprise Ireland, and the NPA
The Innovation Arena 2020 This year the Innovation Arena will be delivered in a new format due to Covid-19. So, we too are innovating to deliver the 10th Innovation Arena in a safe and efficient manner in these challenging times.
Unfortunately, the buzz of attending the Innovation Arena at National Ploughing will never be replicated in an online competition. What it will achieve though is recognition of innovative and entrepreneurial activity that is driving forward in this this country despite Covid-19. Many Enterprise Ireland companies have adjusted to deliver success, whether it has been developing important PPE, or ensuring that vital food and industry services remain open. This resilience in particularly evident in the Agri community.
The Innovation Arena in 2020 will remain be the ideal platform to demonstrate ground-breaking developments, whether they are farmer led inventions, commercial company innovations, or research focused solutions that have the potential to change the industry. to thousands of Innovation Arena visitors. In fact the Innovation Arena created initially by Alfie Cox, is now 10 years old! Enterprise Ireland is proud to be apart of this showcase of Agri-tech for the last 7 years.
Over the last 10 years, innovative products at the Innovation Arena from leading companies such as Dairymaster, Samco, Malone, Moocall, Herdwatch and Cross Engineering have gone on to receive global success. The beauty of this competition is the unearthing of unknown technology like Magrow with their novel spraying technology, last years winners of the Alfie Cox Trophy ‘The Cotter Crate’ with a new approach to sheep handling. There are far too many to mention, we will have a top ten for ten years of Innovation announced later this year.
The Innovation Arena receives extensive media coverage as the world looks to Ireland to lead innovation for the agriculture sector. This will be vital to companies in 2020 to promote new innovations, as nearly every trade fair and events have been postponed or cancelled. Enterprise Ireland along with National Ploughing Association will endeavour to reach all audiences to promote the Innovation Arena winners.
Innovators from the following industry sectors are encouraged to enter: dairy and dry-stock farming, horticulture, information and communication technology, cloud and mobile based software, animal health and genetics, water and waste management, environment and clean-tech, animal and farm management, farm safety and leading research. With a range of categories in which to enter, and a competition structure that supports Irish ingenuity at all levels, The Innovation Arena is the perfect place to launch your new innovations.
Ifac gives a helping hand to Irish agtech at Innovation Awards
Ifac, the professional services firm for the farming, food and agribusiness sector. We are delighted to support the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena Awards 2020, in association with the National Ploughing Association, for the second year in a row.
The awards, including the ifac Best Newcomer Award 2020, recognise Irish businesses and entrepreneurs that are leading the way with their agtech and ag-engineering products for the industry. Owing to Covid-19, this year’s awards have moved online with a digital award ceremony taking place on the 15th of September.
The ifac Best Newcomer Award 2019 went to HerdEye, an agtech startup developing vision systems for livestock health monitoring. Its vision system uses artificial intelligence to monitor cows to determine when a cow is going to calve, if they are experiencing heat stress or lameness, and for body condition scoring.
David Leydon, Head of Food and AgriBusiness at ifac said, “We are delighted to be supporting Enterprise Ireland and the National Ploughing Association in this years’s search for outstanding agtech talent and innovation. Many of the businesses represented in the ifac Best Newcomer 2020 category will be part of the future of the Irish agtech sector, and their products are being developed to help ease some of the pressures on Irish farmers today. It was a pleasure to work with Ciarna and the team and we look forward to working with them into the future.
“The winner of this award will recieve ifac’s advisory and accountancy services for 12 months at a critical stage of their development. This includes business structure and tax advisory, financial planning, as well as support with their business’ growth strategy and funding applications.”
Ciaran Feeney, Co-founder of Herdeye said, “We were delighted to win the ifac Best Newcomer Award at the EI Innovation Arena Awards at last year’s Ploughing Championship. Working with David and the team at ifac has been a huge benefit to HerdEye. Without their support, sector knowledge, and commercial acumen, we would not be where we are today. We look forward to continuing to work with ifac as we grow our HerdEye team and business.”
James Maloney, Project Manager for Enterprise Ireland said, “Unfortunately, the buzz of attending the Innovation Arena at National Ploughing will never be replicated in an online competition. What it will achieve, however, is recognition of the innovative and entrepreneurial activity that is driving forward this country despite Covid-19. Many Enterprise Ireland companies have adjusted to deliver success, whether it has been developing important PPE, or ensuring that vital food and industry services remain open. This resilience is particularly evident in the agri-community. We are delighted that early-stage companies like Herdeye are being discovered, and supported by the ifac Best Newcomer Award again this year”.
The closing date for entries for the online Innovation Arena Awards is the 10th of July 2020. Click here to enter.
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Article taken from https://www.innovationarena.ie/About/ & https://www.ifac.ie/news/ifac-gives-a-helping-hand-to-irish-agtech-at-innovation-awards/
