Placements in the MSc In Insights and Innovation

What Students Stay About the MSc in Insights & Innovation?

“I think a highlight of the course for me has been the people that’s connected me with – classmates, coaches, academics and industry experts who’ve offered us the opportunity to develop a really rich network outside of our placement organizations and also a breadth of knowledge, experience and opinion that has really, really helped all of us along the way.

The Bord Bia DCU MSc in Insights & Innovation has offered me the opportunity to really deepen my knowledge in a multitude of areas over the last 18 months; from design thinking to innovation strategy, consumer insight to sustainable enterprise. It’s equipped me with the skills to transcend raw data and derive meaningful insights.

My time on placement with Powerscourt Distillery has really enabled me to apply those insights in a real world setting and turn the theory into tangible and impactful outcomes. I feel my placement with Powerscourt Distillery offered me exposure to all facets of business because it’s still an emerging scaling company. My placement projects included everything from a retail review to category intelligence reports for markets, and I’m currently working on a report that will deal with the pertinent sustainability issues that are facing the company both now and in the future.

I would fully recommend the DCU MSc in Insights and Innovation with Bord Bia to anyone who feels that they’re interested and are willing to contribute enough to it. My time on the course has been really rewarding. I feel that it’s impacted both my professional perspective and skill set. The people it’s connected me with have been fantastic.

My time on placement has given me the opportunity to bridge theory and contribution and really to show what an impact what I’m learning can have. It can be fast paced. It’s dynamic and it can be demanding at times, but overall it’s a really rewarding program.”

Cathy McHugh, MSc in Insights & Innovation Student

“It was really an immersive experience and an experience-full year. In my placement in Irish Distillers, I had the opportunity to lead multiple innovation concepts. From talking with the production and liquid development team, seeing what liquid was available, we’ve been able to craft a proposition around what we could do for the brands with limited edition releases and be working really closely with the stage gate process and bringing this through from the ideation briefing agencies, working with the design and packaging team to basically been brewing for like whiskey to launch in key markets. We have had four innovations this year and two which I can proudly say that I have been involved in leading.

If anybody was to have an interest in the area of innovation, I would recommend this program highly. I would also say that if they were not from a food and beverage background, that is also such a good experience to have the opportunity to immerse themselves would into the sector. It’s a great way in and I learned so much about it within the programme as it is a really exciting time to be among the world’s most essential industries“

Clair Byrne, MSc in Insights & Innovation Student

“The impact of the program on my career has been really significant. Up to undertaking the program, I already actually worked in the innovation field. However, the program has made me much more confident in my role, and so it’s really expanded my skill set and my innovation toolkit as well to really excel in the area of innovation.

I’d recommend the program to anyone else, and particularly to other industry professionals who may already work in the field of innovation. I just think it’s a really great program to really enhance your skillset as well as are the connections that you make on the course from your classmates and all of the industry professionals that we were exposed to are really invaluable.”

Katie Enright, MSc in Insights & Innovation Student

Kerry Group on the Parnership with Bord Bia and DCU

“The program has definitely amplified my passion for the food and drinks industry and, it has really given me the business knowledge and acumen and the knowledge and insights that I can marry that with my science background and really use that to help make the progress of the industry in whatever capacity I’m in in my next role going into the future.

I definitely recommend the programme. It’s an incredibly immersive programme, but if I was back two years ago, I would definitely apply again. If you have a

passion for food, definitely apply and just make sure that passion comes across in your interview.”

Molly Mulligan

“Molly has provided significant support and value during her time with us in Kerry, as has our partnership with Bord Bia and DCU.

having an additional team member with the right mindset and willingness to learn has gone a really long way during this time and Molly has learned and adapted very quickly to the very fast pace of Kerry life. And she’s provided some great insights that have helped to shape the future of our portfolio structure, as well as how we communicate and position ourselves to our customer and our peers. This is a testament to the screening process behind the program, which truly identifies the top talent within the industry.”

Niamh Hunt – Senior Marketing Manager at ProActive Health, Kerry Group

Bewley’s and the Impact of Innovation and the Placement

“The highlight for me would be my placement. I think getting the opportunity to spend a full year with Bewley’s really gave me invaluable experience. I was able to apply the different theory and frameworks and and put them into practice, helped them come to life as part of the marketing function there. It’s been really, really valuable.

So this for me has been really, really impactful through the different group work that we did in college and then being able to bring that into placement and bringing it to the team. For me as well, this is being a brand new industry and so it’s really been a like important steppingstone for me to help accelerate my career in the Irish food and beverage industry.

I would definitely recommend the Bord Bia MSc Insights in Innovation program, especially if you have not worked in the food and beverage industry before. As someone who is new to the industry and you know, it’s become apparent through the course that there are a number of rich perspectives that have come together through this network that we’ve built, and that’s also something that’s been really, really rewarding.”

Jessica Sargeant, MSc in Insights & Innovation Student

“We were lucky with Jessica. She gelled very well in the business. She was able to get things done and that tallied with our strategic initiatives for the year. I think she was able to understand what was going on very early on and understand where she could fit in with the big picture and what we were trying to get done for the year. I thought she brought in kind of university thinking where that was required and then just got stuck in in other areas as well.

So really positive year all around.”

Cathal Murphy – Head of Sustainability and Innovation, Bewleys