AUTOMATION, ROBOTICS & AI PRISM: Why Ireland’s manufacturing SMEs need a low-
risk route into immersive and digital twin innovation and skills, yet many emerging technologies still feel high-risk, expensive or
T
he PRISM Programme was created to bridge that gap with a structured, funded, step-by-step route for SMEs across the
island of Ireland.
A PRACTICAL PROBLEM: INNOVATION FEELS RISKY WHEN MARGINS ARE TIGHT
Manufacturing leaders hear a steady stream of new terms, immersive technology, augmented reality, virtual reality, digital twins, AI, but the real question is simpler: where would this help my operation, what is practical for a company of our size and how do we avoid expensive false starts? These questions come up repeatedly when manufacturers are trying to modernise processes while protecting output, quality and customer delivery. PRISM exists because many SMEs are not looking for ‘technology for technology’s sake’. They want practical steps that connect directly to operational pain: downtime, training, quality, visibility, labour and skills. During the programme launch webinar, manufacturers shared their top operational challenges, staff retention, training, downtime, costs, tech integration and PRISM is deliberately framed around those real problems rather than around buying tools or hardware.
WHAT PRISM IS (AND WHAT IT ISN’T) PRISM is a Practical, InterTradeIreland funded innovation support programme designed
of Ireland. The intent is to help companies improve upfront commitment of deploying new technology solutions blindly. Importantly, PRISM is not ‘just a tech webinar’
or a vendor showcase. The programme’s purpose is to help manufacturers take small, practical steps, learning from real use cases, seeing what works and PRISM is also explicitly all-island in design.
InterTradeIreland described its role as connecting businesses north and south and supporting SME competitiveness and productivity through collaborative innovation. PRISM sits within that wider mission of helping SMEs adopt innovation through structured pathways.
WHY A STAGED APPROACH MATTERS A common barrier to adoption is the feeling that joining an innovation programme means signing up to ‘the whole shebang’ from day one. PRISM is intentionally staged: the introductory webinar was the awareness-building entry point and is followed touch Expression of Interest, which is used to start a conversation. Not to force commitment. Places are limited: the webinar sets out an intention to bring 10 manufacturing companies from Northern Ireland and 10 from the Republic of Ireland into the next stage. That scarcity is not
meaningful support, workshops, mentoring and expert time, must be resourced and delivered in a way that creates value for each participating company.
WHAT PARTICIPATING SMES ACTUALLY GET
For companies selected beyond the webinar stage, PRISM is described as a short, structured programme running from early May to late June, built around two in-person workshops with a mentoring phase in between. The mentoring is framed as a practical, step-by-step engagement: challenge and is supported to map that challenge to a realistic solution path (which may involve AR/ VR, digital twins, AI, or other enabling technologies depending on the problem). the Digital Twin Centre in Belfast, explicitly to let manufacturers experience demonstrations experiential and are best understood by trying them rather than reading about them. The second workshop is described as a prototyping workshop planned at Dundalk Institute of Technology, again designed to move from curiosity to concrete next steps.
The launch webinar also notes that there is no cash cost to participate (while acknowledging a state-aid value that must be recorded), and that a research activity includes surveys/data collection led by Queen’s University Belfast. The stated goal then signposted (and ‘handheld’ into) relevant follow-on supports such as Local Enterprise gateways, depending on what the SME needs next.
THE CORE ‘WHY’ PRISM exists to give Irish manufacturing SMEs a low-risk, structured route to test and understand emerging technologies against real operational problems, with expert guidance and funded support, turning buzzwords into practical decisions. Submit your Expression of Interest in 30 seconds
:
https://www.eirmersive.com/prism 20 March/April 2026 Irish Manufacturing
www.irish-manufacturing.com
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