From left: Dr Christina Thorpe, Dr Ruth Freeman, EU Commissioner Michael McGrath, Dr Indiana Olbert, Dr Yuanyuan Chen and Prof Fabiano Pallonetto. Image: Jason Clarke
A total of eight projects have now received funding to accelerate projects tackling global challenges of the climate crisis and digital transformation.
Six Irish research teams working across energy, climate and child safety have won a collective €8m in prize funding under the National Challenge Fund.
This is the second cohort of prize winners under the programme, and comes just months after AI2Peat and Drive became the first projects to receive awards as part of the fund.
The Research Ireland National Challenge Fund was launched in 2022 with the aim of driving innovation in green transition and digital transformation. With a pool of €65m, the challenge began by funding 96 teams that received €50,000 each for their initial concepts.
Each succeeding phase whittled down the winning teams, with only a few receiving grants in the prize phase which are worth more than €1m.
Prof Fabiano Pallonetto and Dr Amy Fahy from Maynooth University are leading a project called 'Renew', which has won the Energy Innovation Challenge and a more than €2.5m prize.
Renew is a low-cost, AI and IoT-enabled home energy management system designed to reduce electricity costs for consumers and support Ireland's transition to a low-carbon energy system.
"This support enables Renew to scale its impact nationwide - accelerating the integration of renewable energy into Ireland's power system and reducing energy costs for households and businesses," commented Pallonetto.
"The funding also strengthens our collaboration with industry, Government and civil society, including key partnerships with Irish county councils and international innovation networks focused on energy transition." The project is supported by Peter Hamilton from Maynooth Sustainable Energy Community as its societal impact champion.
Winning the Digital for Resilience Challenge and €1.3m in funds is team 'StopFloods4.ie', led by Dr Indiana Olbert and Dr Thomas McDermott from the University of Galway.
Together with project societal impact champion Dr Ciaran Broderick from Met Éireann, StopFlood4.ie is developing an AI-powered flood forecasting and decision-support system which integrates meteorological, tidal and river flow data.
By transforming fragmented data into actionable insights, the team aims to equip emergency managers and communities with the means to anticipate, prepare for and respond to flood threats more effectively.
StopFloods4.ie is a collaborative project supported by the flood forecasting centre at Met Éireann, Cork City Council and local authorities.
Meanwhile, 'GroSafe', led by Technical University Dublin's Dr Christina Thorpe and Dr Matt Bowden has won the OurTech Challenge and €1.3m. GroSafe is a safeguarding platform designed to build resilience against child grooming through education, support and reporting.
The project is supported by social impact champion Fiona Jennings from the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Jennings said that the project focuses on "how children and young people are groomed into criminality or for sexual exploitation purposes.
"The GroSafe team has gone to great lengths to ensure that the voices of stakeholders were heard and that their needs and requirements were understood. In particular, I believe that the engagement with children is the perfect example of true participation in action."
The 'Traceless' project is developing fully biodegradable, durable, tree-supporting products with controlled-release fertilisers.
Led by Dr Yuanyuan Chen from the Technological University of the Shannon and Prof Maurice Collins from the University of Limerick alongside social impact champion Maurice Ryan from Green Belt Ltd, the project has won the Healthy Environment for All Challenge and more than €1.2m in funding.
"We are delighted to have entered the prize phase of the National Challenge Fund to pioneer the development of fully biodegradable tree-supporting products," commented team lead Chen.
"Collaboration is at the heart of what we do at TUS, as well as developing solutions that impact real-world problems."
According to the team, the project's proposed solution could position Ireland as an innovation leader in green forestry practices that can be adopted globally.
Alongside the prize award, two teams have received runner-up awards under the Healthy Environment for All Challenge.
'Bohemian' is led by Dr David O'Connor from Dublin City University and Dr Jiayao Chen from University College Dublin and 'Restart' is led by Dr Ciprian Briciu-Burgina and Prof Fiona Regan from Dublin City University.
"The research teams are working on innovative projects that will contribute to Ireland's transition to a clean and secure energy system, enhance our capabilities to anticipate, prepare for and respond to flood threats, build societal resilience against child grooming, and support our transition to an environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral economy," commented Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless, TD.
Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.