Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, has announced over €2.5 million in prize funding for the AI2Peat and DRIVE teams, the first National Challenge Fund prize winners.
Funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, the Fund calls on researchers to identify problems related to Ireland’s Green Transition and Digital Transformation, and work directly with those most affected to solve them.
Minister James Lawless said, “I am delighted to announce the first two teams to be awarded prize funding under the National Challenge Fund. This is a significant milestone for the programme, which has supported 96 research teams since its launch in 2022.
“The winning teams are working on innovative, solution-focused projects that will help to deliver transformational societal and economic impact and support Ireland’s progress towards becoming a climate-neutral economy by 2050. I congratulate the DRIVE and AI2Peat teams on their success in securing prize funding.”
The AI2Peat team is the winner of the prize award under the Future Digital Challenge. The team is led by Dr Corrado Grappiolo, UCD School of Computer Science and CeADAR - Ireland’s Centre for Applied AI, and Dr Eoghan Holohan, UCD School of Earth Sciences and iCRAG - the Research Ireland Centre for Applied Geosciences, working with Societal Impact Champion Dr Shane Regan, National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
AI2Peat – All-Ireland, AI enhanced Peatland Monitoring Platform, uses satellite imagery, data from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and machine learning models to monitor peatland condition at scale. The platform generates ecological maps that reflect the condition of Ireland’s raised bogs, which can serve as a decision support mechanism for national efforts in peatland restoration. The consortium comprises CeADAR, iCRAG and the NPWS.
Team DRIVE, led by Dr Séamus O’Shaughnessy and Dr Daniel Trimble, Trinity College Dublin with Societal Impact Champion Dr Karl Brown, Jaguar Land Rover, UK, won the 2050 Challenge.
Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO, Research Ireland, said, “I am delighted to see the first round of the National Challenge Fund advance to the prize phase. The teams announced have successfully progressed their projects through three rounds of this competitive funding programme to achieve their prize awards. I congratulate them on this achievement and look forward to seeing their projects deliver ambitious solutions over the coming years.”
EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, said, “The National Challenge Fund shows how strategic EU funding can make a real difference. In this case, support comes from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The prize funding announced today will help the winning research teams further develop their solutions to major challenges on the road to a more sustainable future. Both Ireland and the European Union are committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. These projects will play a key role in that effort - supporting the shift to a climate-neutral society and helping to build a better future for everyone.”
Prof Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, said, "Congratulations to the AI2Peat team on this remarkable achievement! Since the first round of the National Challenge Fund, the project has continued to go from strength to strength. By harnessing advanced technologies, the team is helping to address urgent environmental challenges, and we are excited to see the meaningful impacts of this work."
Dr John Lonsdale, CEO of CeADAR said: "The success of the AI2Peat team is a powerful demonstration of how applied AI research can directly support Ireland’s Green Transition and Digital Transformation. By combining satellite imagery, ecological expertise, and AI, this project delivers real-world impact in protecting and restoring our peatlands – one of Ireland’s most vital carbon stores. We are proud to see CeADAR Senior Data Scientist Corrado Grappiolo lead the AI2Peat team in innovation at the forefront of Europe’s sustainability agenda, showing how AI can be harnessed to drive meaningful environmental change."
Prof Sarah A. Gleeson, Director of iCRAG and Prof in Sustainability Geoscience at the UCD School of Earth Sciences, said: “The success of the AI2Peat team shows how geoscience research can directly support Ireland’s climate and biodiversity goals. We are proud to contribute to this pioneering project, and delighted to see Dr Eoghan Holohan and colleagues recognised through this prize, which highlights the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration in addressing global environmental challenges.”
Dr Corrado Grappiolo, UCD School of Computer Science and CeADAR, leads AI2Peat. He said, “We are deeply honoured for having been selected to enter the Prize Phase of the National Challenge Fund - Future Digital Challenge. AI2Peat has collaboration at its core, and our achievements would have never been possible without the expertise and guidance of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the 200+ stakeholders we have been interacting with.
“A huge portion of our success is due to the massive support provided by Research Ireland. Thanks to their mentoring and training activities we mastered design thinking and theory of change skills; that allowed us to truly work towards a game-changing solution to monitoring peatland conditions at national scale that is the most impactful and useful as possible.”
Pictured: Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, Minister James Lawless, Dr Eoghan Holohan and Dr Corrado Grappiolo.