According to the European Innovation Scoreboard, Ireland belongs to the group of Strong Innovators (in the middle of the group). “Innovators” and “Employment and impacts” are the strongest innovation dimensions, while “intellectual assets” and “finance and support” are the weakest ones

Ireland and other countries taking part in the Frugal Innovation project according to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2018

Our project team conducted research in their counties in order to find out the specifics of frugal innovation market. A piece of research was conducted in Ireland.

Are you interested in hearing about frugal innovations available on Irish market? Then keep reading!

The Magiflo patented rainwater gutter system

The Magiflo gutter is a uniquely shaped rainwater gutter that can be fitted to new or old buildings and suits most applications to form a leafguard barrier. It will remove the rainwater from the roof without the gutter getting clogged up with debris. The main purpose of a rainwater gutter system is to remove rainwater from roofs. If there were no gutters on your house in a area with a wet climate, the rainwater from the roof could cause damp in the house and even subsidence. In warmer climates the gutter can be used to harvest the rainwater for use around the house.

The problems arising from gutters are debris such as leaves and moss build up and require cleaning out in order for the gutter to function properly.  Heavy snowfall can also cause problems as the snow builds up causing ice dams and even just the weight of the snow can cause some gutters to collapse. All of these problems are eliminated by using the Magiflo rainwater gutter system.

Cheaper –   The Magiflo patented gutter system costs less than the cost of cleaning gutters twice.

Greener – The rainwater supplied by the Magiflo gutter will be up to 95% cleaner than conventional gutters.

FoodCloud makes the redistribution of surplus food as easy as possible, matching businesses with too much food, with charities in their community that have too little, tackling food waste and food poverty in the process.

Stores have food, which cannot be sold, according to the legal restrictions like expiration date or the time of exposure in the shops. As a result, huge amount of food is wasted. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, people use farmland the size of Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan combined to grow food which is thrown out. Thanks to smart app offered by FoodCloud, charities are linked with stores and have up-dated information on food which can be collected by them. This way the fresh food is not wasted but goes to people who experienced food poverty.

Waste solutions for the 21st century. Kollect is a young Irish Start-up. Kollect is working to disrupt the waste disposal market and create alternative waste solutions that give people more flexibility and save money. Kollect is based on the observation, that every household is different – each family produces different amount of waste, so why they should pay the same money. Therefore the services provided by Kollect are:

Cheaper comparing to traditional waste services providers

Adjusted to real needs as clients decide by themselves about the day of collection

Flexible – clients pay when waste is collected

Simple – no contract needed

Poverty in Ireland

According to the Irish National Anti-Poverty Strategy, 790,000 in Ireland are unable to maintain a standard of living acceptable by Irish society due to their lack of resources.

According to Eurostat , Ireland is ranked at 13 place in terms of the rate of people risk of poverty or social exclusion with the rate of 24,2%.

Source: European Innovation Scoreboard 2018 – Executive summary, European Commission, 21/06/2018

https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/30201

https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-poverty-in-ireland/

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/People_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion