Partnership
UCD Innovation Academy is proud to partner with ESB to foster an innovative culture within the company. Our collaboration began in 2017 and was renewed following a competitive process in 2023 for five years until 2028.
Today, our partnership has evolved and is delivered in two parts: delivering the ESB Innovation Academy (2017- present) and, in tandem, facilitating bespoke workshops with a range of ESB participants, from recent graduate recruits to senior leadership.
ESB Innovation Academy
The ESB Innovation Academy is an annual innovation development programme for ESB, including a cohort of selected participants from different divisions (approx. 25 participants) co-sponsored within ESB. Since its inception in 2017, the programme’s objectives have been implementing a learning programme to foster an innovation culture and support innovative projects within ESB.
UCD Innovation Academy facilitators guide ESB Innovation Academy participants to foster their creativity, entrepreneurialism, and innovation through a blend of academic, practical, action-based learning and project work. Primarily centred around the Design Thinking methodology, participants apply this approach to identify a problem to be solved within a pre-identified domain of particular concern to ESB, learning iteratively through trial and error, peer learning, and reflection.
The ESB Innovation Academy learning is delivered via a blended learning approach of in-person sessions at ESB HQ, UCD Innovation Academy and online.
The ESB Innovation Academy programme supports the following objectives:
- Build the capability for innovation in the business,
- Develop the competence for innovation among participants,
- Enhance the overall innovative capability and culture in the business,
- Improve collaboration across business boundaries and with customers,
- Enable the participating business units to engage together and build relationships
- Provide different approaches to address business challenges,
- Deliver innovative projects that deliver on business objectives.
“The InnovationAcademy@ESB started out in 2017 as a people capability programme around Innovation and Design Thinking, then we added sponsored business challenges based on our Net Zero 20240 Strategy, extended it to all Business Units across ESB Group, and it is now a pillar programme of our Innovation Strategy. The InnovationAcademy@ESB programme develops Ideas and concepts for the innovation pipeline in our business, as well as building specialists, mentors, sponsors, networks and innovation leaders to drive our Net Zero 2040 Strategy.”
ESB Ignition
Ignition is an annual ESB Innovation two-day hackathon for ESB’s first-year graduate programme. First-year graduates, typically based in stations and offices across the country, gather in Dublin at ESB’s head for the workshop.
Teams work in teams on an assigned challenge. For example, one year teams addressed “How to decarbonise transport and reduce traffic congestion associated with schools and third-level education.”
Forty-five graduates, divided into nine interdisciplinary teams, were introduced to rapid idea generation, were guided through the design thinking process, and tasked with developing and pitching innovative solutions in response to the challenge set.
Throughout the two-day event, Innovation Academy facilitators Eileen Diskin and Maurice Knightly encouraged participants to harness each team member’s differing problem-solving approaches. In addition, ESB called on internal and external speakers to share insights with the teams on sustainable mobility, including South Dublin County Council Mayor Emma Murphy and UCD’s Dr. Páraic Carroll, Assistant Professor in Transport Engineering.
“"I had a wonderful time taking part in the 2023 ESB Ignition with UCD Innovation Academy. Our facilitators, Eileen Diskin and Maurice Knightly, brought clear passion, expertise, and contagious energy to the programme. They were excellent at explaining key creative process elements in such an engaging manner"”
Beat the Peak
In another example of a short workshop with ESB, UCD Innovation Academy facilitated a one-day in-person workshop at UCD centred around Design Thinking and the ESB ‘Beat the Peak’ initiative in 2023.
For context, EirGrid’s annual generation and capacity statement considered an increased risk that for the winters of 2022, 2023, and 2024, when wind generation is low, that supply might not meet demand. Exacerbated by the effects of the Russian-Ukraine war and the rise in gas and electricity costs, there was potential for consequential impacts for ESB consumers.
The workshop’s objectives were to introduce participants to the core elements and stages of the Design Thinking cycle, explore problems faced by customers or problems facing ESB Networks which require customer-focused solutions, and develop ideas to potentially solve these problems for various customer personas through simple prototypes.
The main challenge participants were tasked with was to apply the design thinking methodology to the “Beak the peak” initiative to explore further how ESB could aim to change consumer behaviour around peak electricity usage times, driving energy efficiency, with the intention that successful ideas could be rolled-out over subsequent winters to reduce supply concerns near peak times.
For further information on partnerships with the UCD Innovation Academy, please contact:
Eleanor Kelly
Head of Strategy and Partnerships
