With rising energy prices, tightening sustainability targets, and increasing competition, optimising energy use is essential. For Munster’s industries and public sector organisations, smarter energy management unlocks financial savings, enhances resilience, and drives environmental leadership.

Economic Advantage: High energy costs place pressure on businesses and public institutions. AI-driven optimisation reduces expenses by minimising waste, predicting failures, and improving efficiency. Savings can be reinvested into operations, workforce development, and business growth.

Competitive Edge: Energy-efficient businesses attract investment, secure funding, and meet sustainability expectations. Whether in manufacturing, IT, public administration, or retail, those optimising energy gain a strategic advantage, strengthening their reputation and long-term viability.

Sustainability and Compliance: Ireland’s carbon reduction commitments and regulatory demands require decisive action. Integrating renewables, optimising consumption, and leveraging predictive maintenance help cut emissions and ensure compliance.

Delivered by Helmut Simonis from University College Cork, this on site one-day skills development course will combine several industrial case studies and overview presentations. Lectures will explore Ireland’s energy landscape and demonstrate proven AI techniques for optimising energy use. Attendees will gain valuable insights through case studies and interactive discussions while networking with industry leaders and key decision-makers in the energy sector.

Date: Thursday, May 1^st 2025 – this is a provisional date, which is subject to change based on timely registration of the minimum required number of attendees.
Location: Onsite in UCC – Room 2.26, Western Gateway Building, University College Cork

Participants will gain hands-on knowledge and skills to:
– Understand Ireland’s energy landscape and optimisation challenges.
– Improve data collection, reconciliation, and anomaly detection.
– Use energy use and price prediction models for smarter decision-making.
– Leverage renewables, storage, and load shifting to reduce costs.
– Analyse real-world case studies, including campus energy supply and data centre efficiency.

For more information and to register:
https://entire-edih.ie/skills-development/ai-fundamentals-energy-cost-optimisation/

Registration Deadline: 16th April 2025

The Agri Thematic Working Group chaired by ENTIRE is delighted to present this online workshop organised by the European Commission taking place on 27 March 2025 to address the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in agriculture. This event will focus on the applications, opportunities, and barriers related to the effective exploitation of AI in the sector. It will inform the Commission’s future work in this field.

The expert workshop will explore how AI is driving impactful innovation serving sectoral needs. It will bring together sectoral representatives, including farmers’ organisations, start-ups, industry leaders, researchers, and policy-makers from both expert domains – agriculture and AI. It will help to foster collaboration among stakeholders, and help tackle some of the key challenges, with a focus on access to data and computing.

The principal objectives of the workshop are:

1. Identify unseized opportunities and market gaps in AI in agriculture with a special focus on use cases
2. Identify challenges encountered in bringing effective AI-based solutions to the market
3. Explore ways to enhance data availability for AI in agriculture
4. Discuss approaches towards AI models driven by a diversified innovation ecosystem.

To participate in the event, kindly register by 26 March. Please, note that when registering, you will be asked to login to your existing “EU Login account” or to create one.

For more information contact: Hazel.Peavoy@WaltonInstitute.ie

The ENTIRE European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH), in collaboration with the Enterprise Europe Network within Enterprise Ireland, is excited to announce the upcoming ENTIRE Industry Network Day; a free event designed to empower SMEs with digital transformation and data-driven decision-making strategies. Taking place on April 2nd at Tyndall National Institute, Cork, this event is a must-attend for businesses looking to enhance their competitiveness and digital capabilities.

This highly engaging and interactive event will feature expert-led discussions on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, and Digital Transformation, providing insights into the latest industry trends and practical applications. Attendees will also hear firsthand from SMEs that have successfully leveraged the EDIH programme to drive growth and innovation within their businesses.

Key highlights:

• Expert talks: Gain valuable insights from leading professionals in AI, cybersecurity, and digital transformation.
• Success stories: Hear real-life case studies from SMEs that have benefited from EDIH support.
• 1:1 consultations: Attendees will have the unique opportunity to schedule one-on-one meetings with EDIH experts, national agencies, and industry peers.
• Interactive showcase: Explore key programmes and initiatives, including:
  • Enterprise Europe Network Ireland (EEN)
  • Horizon Europe – EU Research & Innovation Programme
  • Enterprise Ireland programmes such as Innovation Partnership programmes, R&D Programme and Digitalisation programmes and IP Help.
  • Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF)
  • European Digital Innovation Hubs

To  REGISTER your interest in attending this event, please click the registration button above, complete a short profile and questionnaire on your organisation’s needs and opportunities.

This event is supported by Enterprise Europe Network Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the EDIH Network.

Agenda

09:00 – 10:00 Registration | Tea Coffee | Networking | Showcase Stands

10:00 – 10:20 Welcome address and workshop format

• Paul Galvin ENTIRE
• Teri Smith EEN/EI
• Laura Clifford EI

Skills development – Cyber Security Session

10:20 – 10:35 Cybersecurity & CyberSkills // Dr. Hazel Murray, Cyber Security Lecturer| MTU & ENTIRE EDIH

10:35 – 10:50 Cybersecurity & CyberSkills // Stephen O’Keeffe, Director Cyber and Privacy | PWC

Skills development – AI Session

10:50 – 11:10 AI and Services/AI act // Professor Barry O’Sullivan, Director Insight Centre for Data Analytics and Director SFI Centre for Research Training on Artificial Intelligence | Insight & ENTIRE EDIH

11:10 – 11:25 Skills Development for Digital Transformation // Stephen Lyons, Strategic Partnership Specialist | Skillnet & ENTIRE EDIH

11:25 – 11:45 Coffee Break | Showcase

Test before invest – SME Session – Chair: Laura Clifford

11:45 – 12:30 Experience of SMEs leveraging expertise in Digital Transformation through the EDIH programme

• SME – James O’Connor Waggi Connected Pets, 
• SME – Jim Mulcahy Impact Energy
• SME – Jennifer Thornton – IMME Sustainables
• SME – Bill O’Gorman Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
• SME – Anneliese Duffy Fallon – Fashion Connect

Support to find investment and Networking Session – Chair: Hazel Peavoy

12:30 – 13:30 Ecosystem Building and Networking – How ENTIRE is going beyond the services to provide support to the SMEs.

• Accessing EDIHs and EI Gateways – Brian Cahill MTU and ENTIRE EDIH
• Navigating EU funding – Stephen O’Reilly Enterprise Ireland
• Stakeholder engagement – Caroline Hofman, The CUBE
• EDIH collaborations – Mike Conroy Data2Sustain EDIH and Stephen Barnes ENTIRE EDIH

13:30 – 14.15 Lunch | Networking | Showcase

11:00 – 17.00 Showcase

14.00 – 16:30 Scheduled 1-1 Meetings | Organisations & Service Providers

*subject to change

Tech Industry Alliance, UCC’s School of Computer Science and Information Technology, Cork Smart Gateway and Tech Industry Alliance Skillnet are pleased to bring you the first Tech Talk of 2025: Innovating Together – Cutting Edge Technologies for Industry: AI & Ethics, Cybersecurity, Networks, Software and Human-Computer Interaction taking place on Tues 28 Jan from 8am to 10am at Western Gateway, UCC.

Featuring an interactive panel discussion and insights from some of the UCC School of Computer Science & IT’s top researchers, attendees will discover the latest tech trends, understand the school’s extensive offerings, and learn how to leverage various funding opportunities to begin their journey of innovation.

Registration, refreshments & networking will begin from 08.00am, panel discussion and case studies from 08.30am – 10.00am.

Experts speakers include:

Dr Ena Tobin, Head of Data Analytics at ETOS

Prof. Dirk Pesch, Head of UCC’s School of Computer Science & IT

Professor Utz Roedig, Professor at UCC (School of Computer Science & IT)

Dr. Laura Maye, Lecturer at UCC (School of Computer Science & IT)

Prof. Ken Brown, Professor at UCC (School of Computer Science & IT) and Deputy Director of Insight

Who Should Attend?

Industry Leaders looking to stay at the forefront of technological advancements
Business Professionals interested in R&D and innovation partnerships
Tech Innovators and Researchers focused on collaborative opportunities
Decision-Makers seeking insights into funding options for tech projects

For more information and to register now click HERE.

ENTIRE is excited to introduce the AI Fundamentals: Constraint-Based Production Scheduling course, led by renowned expert Helmut Simonis from University College Cork (UCC). This comprehensive two-day course taking place 17-18 February 2025 on-site in UCC , will explore cutting-edge Constraint Programming (CP) and its potential to revolutionize production scheduling.

Project and production scheduling is an important element in optimizing performance, reducing cost, and satisfying customer demand in industry. Scheduling solutions can address many problem types in manufacturing, from short-term, reactive operational scheduling to mid
to long term strategic capacity planning. AI based methods, in particular Constraint Programming, provide state-of-the-art solutions to the scheduling problem.

What to expect:

The skills development course will use a mix of industrial case studies, overview presentations and some hands-on experience with different open-source tools available for constraint-based scheduling. The course will show where scheduling fits in current AI trends, how different constraint types (temporal, resource based, and human related) can be used to describe a scheduling problem, and how a solution can help humans make better decisions.

What you take away / Deliverables
At the end of the skills development course, participants will be able to;
– Position Constraint-Based Scheduling in the general AI field
– Understand the need for and potential of automated scheduling
– Understand the basic ideas behind Constraint-Based Scheduling
– Identify the different constraint types occurring in scheduling
– Understand the strength and weaknesses of available tools

Who is this service designed for?
– Small to Medium Enterprises
– Small mid caps (companies which are larger than an SME and have up to 3000
employees)
– Public Sector Organisations
– Individuals with specific roles such as:
Budget holders
Production managers
Logistics/Supply Chain Analysts
IT Specialists in private and public settings
Business Consultants

Price
€7,000*
(*100% discounted through de minimus funding for SMEs and public sector organisations)

For more information and to register today see https://entire-edih.ie/ai-fundamentals-constraint-based-production-scheduling/

As Europe continues to experience significant shifts in population, our rural communities are evolving at an unprecedented pace. The arrival of displaced individuals and families is reshaping these regions, bringing both challenges and incredible opportunities for growth, innovation, and inclusion. The influx of diverse perspectives and ideas has the potential to transform rural areas into thriving ecosystems of creativity and collaboration. 

To harness this potential, we invite you to join us in a collaborative workshop focused on empowering, engaging, and embracing our rural communities in this new era. Together, we will explore innovative approaches to integrate new populations into existing structures, leverage biases I to create more inclusive communities, and design the rural regions of tomorrow. 

In our workshop, we will discuss: 

• Connecting New Programmes with Emerging Actors: Identifying and supporting initiatives that integrate newcomers into our communities, fostering collaboration and mutual growth. 

• Implementing Action Plans for Connected Regional Innovation Valleys: Developing strategies to enhance the connectivity and innovation potential of rural areas through the integration of diverse ideas and resources. 

• Learning from Mutual Support Schemes: Sharing best practices and insights from regional innovation programmes that have successfully adapted to demographic changes. 

As part of this consortium, we intend to link with established networks such as the Enterprise Europe Network and the European Digital Innovation Hubs. By connecting with these key players, we can ensure that our initiatives are supported by a robust infrastructure, enhancing our capacity to deliver impactful projects and access valuable resources. 

This workshop also aims to lay the groundwork for forming a consortium that will explore upcoming European Commission calls for proposals. By joining forces, we can position ourselves to take advantage of these funding opportunities and create projects that support the sustainable development of our rural communities. 

We look forward to your participation in this critical conversation as we shape the future of rural Europe together.