"The ideal candidate should be actively involved in new product development (NPD) and have a minimum of three years of experience in the seafood or food sector," according to BIM.
Photo: BIM
Ireland's seafood development agency Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has begun accepting expressions of interest for its Seafood Innovation Programme, a national scheme intended to boost new product development (NPD) within the Irish seafood industry.
The programme will begin in February 2026 and run for nine months, involving between 12 and 15 days of activity. Participants will take part in workshops and modular training, along with trade visits and field trips in Ireland and abroad.
Each company will also receive tailored mentoring designed to ensure that lessons from the programme are applied directly within their operations, covering the management of innovation processes, assessment of product potential, and strategies for launching new offerings in both domestic and export markets.
The initiative is aimed at professionals in seafood processing and primary production who want to build their innovation capabilities. Applicants are expected to have at least three years of experience in the seafood or wider food sector and to be actively engaged in NPD.
Paul Ward, BIM’s Head of Business Intelligence, said the programme had been “carefully curated” to encourage companies to treat NPD as a collaborative, cross-functional discipline. He added that it is designed to foster a community of seafood innovators while giving participants practical skills to scale new products and compete more effectively.
The programme was announced in September by Minister of State for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Timmy Dooley TD. “Developing smarter, more sustainable and consumer-focused products is essential for the growth and resilience of Ireland’s seafood sector,” Dooley argued at the time.
The launch of the programme followed the release of BIM’s Business of Seafood 2024 report, which included details of major investments in automation, energy efficiency, cold storage, and NPD capacity in Ireland.
Expressions of interest are open until 12 noon on Wednesday 10 December 2025. Further information and application details are available on BIM’s website.
