FAST-IP: UCD and Teagasc in €7 million partnership to deliver new food and agri entrepreneurship programme
Posted 12 March, 2024
Gary Ryan, Director, AgTechUCD; Professor Nick Holden, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering and Academic Director, FAST-IP; Dr Siobhán Jordan, Head of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Teagasc and Marina Donohoe, Head of Research and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland
A new Government funded €7 million food and agriculture entrepreneurship training programme is to be delivered by University College Dublin in partnership with Teagasc.
Based at the AgTechUCD Innovation Centre at UCD Lyons Farm, the Food and Agriculture Sustainable Technology Innovation Programme (FAST-IP) is designed to “increase innovation knowledge” in the food and agriculture sector and kick start creation of more high potential start-ups and jobs in the sector.
The programme forms part of Enterprise Ireland’s Innovators’ Initiative which is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
“Ireland’s Sustainable Food and AgTech industry is already a success and nationally important, contributing an estimated €8 billion to the economy and employing over 160,000 people,” said Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney TD.
“This programme will further enhance innovation in the sector by providing participants with the necessary skills to evaluate, select and validate ideas for new products and services. Over the lifespan of the programme, FAST-IP is expected to contribute to the creation of new Sustainable Food and AgTech SMEs and High Potential Start-Ups, with the potential to create hundreds of new jobs in the process.”
FAST-IP will have five intakes of 15 participants, beginning in September 2024 and will run until the end of 2029. The 12-month in-person programme, aimed at mid-career professionals, is accredited by UCD at Level 9 on the National Qualifications Framework.
Its focus will be on developing market validated solutions to unmet needs in the areas of agricultural technology and food sustainability sectors.
Alongside this, participants will spend 8-10 weeks immersed in agricultural environments including farms and food processing companies throughout the year long programme.
Participants who complete the programme will be awarded a Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“The key objective of FAST-IP is the creation of a pipeline of commercialisation fund applications and an increase in the number of HPSUs in the sustainable food systems and AgTech sectors,” said Gary Ryan, Director, AgTechUCD Innovation Centre.
“The exciting and dynamic programme will deliver a unique perspective to the participants in each cohort that will position them to carry out real-world needs identification and follow that through with innovative, realistic, and commercial solutions.”
He added, “Placing high calibre, passionate, mid-career professionals in agricultural immersive environments will facilitate the development of high quality, commercially viable business ideas. These ideas will have the potential to develop into solutions that will make the industry more sustainable and profitable.
“From the outset programme participants will be encouraged to focus on innovations that have a positive impact on climate change and the environment. Sustainability around innovative solutions will be to the fore in FAST-IP as it has to be in everything facing the wider ag sector.”
(opens in a new window)Professor Nick Holden, Professor of Biosystems Engineering in the UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering and a co-founder of Proveye, a UCD spin-out company, is the Academic Director of the Graduate Diploma Programme.
FAST-IP will provide participants with a tax-free €38,000 stipend over the 12-month duration of the programme.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
