Time to complete entries for The Irish Times Innovation awards

Ireland’s entrepreneurs are invited to file their entries this week for The Irish Times Innovation awards.

Innovation can be complex but entry to the Innovation Awards is easy. Simply register for the competition, identify one of the five categories that best suit your Innovation and then submit your application.

Now in the event’s 14th year, the awards celebrate innovation in every sector of Irish society and business, including food and agribusiness, manufacturing, life sciences, sustainability, IT and emerging areas such as AI and fintech.

Over the years, finalists have varied from college spin-outs and kitchen table start-ups through to major corporates, charities and sporting/cultural organisations. The common thread through them all is that they have delivered positive change with an innovative product or process.

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This year’s awards are split into five categories: sustainability (sponsored by Skillnet Ireland); IT and Fintech (sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran); life sciences and healthcare (sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland); new frontiers (sponsored by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School); and first-time founder (sponsored by The Irish Times).

[ Class Medical wins Irish Times Innovation of the Year award ]

The last category seeks to recognise the achievements of people who make that leap into the unknown for the first time, converting their bright idea into a new product or service.

Three finalists from each category will be selected by a panel of judges at the end of September.

The finalists will then pitch their innovation to another high-profile judging panel chaired by Chris Horn at the end of October, with the winners of each category, and the overall winner, announced at a special event in mid-November.

Along with the prestige of winning, the overall winner will receive a UCD Smurfit Executive Development scholarship for three from a selection of their Executive Development short courses commencing in 2023/2024 Academic Year. The winner will also receive a complimentary annual premium digital subscription to The Irish Times.

Each category winner will receive access to one place on a course from the Communication Suite from Irish Times Training in 2024. They will also receive a complimentary annual premium digital subscription to The Irish Times.

Last year’s overall winner was Class Medical, a spin-out of the University of Limerick, which has designed and implemented a quality safety tool for urinary catheterisation to prevent injury.

Category winners included TradeBid, an online, end-to-end auction platform where car companies and dealers buy and sell vehicles to each other; Future Planet, which offers corporate enterprises a software framework to help them become more sustainable; and HoloToyz, which manufactures augmented reality products for children.