Aquaculture workshop helps position Ireland as leader in next phase of industry’s innovation

Ten start-ups from backgrounds including tech and AI took part in this year’s Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Aquaculture Workshop. This year’s event, run by Hatch and supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund took place entirely online due to the COVID-19 emergency. The two-week event had been originally due to take place in the RDIhub in Killorglin, Co Kerry, but was instead live streamed.

Richard Donnelly, BIM Salmon and Shellfish Manager highlighted the breadth of innovation needed to power the aquaculture sector today and said:

The aim of these workshops is to continue to position Ireland as a leader in the next phase of aquaculture innovation. These events are helping to speed up the development of promising start-ups and are vital to the continued development of Ireland’s aquaculture sector because of the role they play in driving new ideas and innovation.

Wayne Murphy, COO, Hatch also highlighted the quality of this year’s participants and their range of skills and said:

We were incredibly pleased with the demand for places on this year’s workshop and with the quality of participants and range of technologies applying. Their appetite for learning and for accessing the tools, knowledge and networks to scale their ideas and technologies has been very encouraging throughout this first phase of the workshop. Sessions with the Hatch team ranged from the global aquaculture landscape industry pain points, venture capital with Aquaspark, strategy and planning, investor readiness and to the protection of IP, making it a busy and productive week. It has been exciting to connect and work with these ambitious entrepreneurs and we look forward to seeing how they develop and grow over the months and years ahead.

Transparency in seafood production and trade, revolutionary energy-saving technology for land-based systems and wastewater expertise are just some of the areas of focus for the 2020 participating businesses.

This year’s workshop ran from Monday 5th until the 16th October, 2020.

Aquaculture workshop helps position Ireland as leader in next phase of industry’s innovation – participants of this year’s aquaculture workshop