The all-female team won the prestigious Teagasc Special Award for their innovative project investigating soil organic matter in North Cork. The Teagasc ‘Special Award’ is presented annually to the project that best demonstrates a thorough understanding of the science of agriculture or food production, or the application of science to improve technologies in these fields. The Teagasc Special Award was presented by Professor Frank O’Mara, director of Teagasc, who invited the students to visit a Teagasc research centre to learn more about work in this area. This marks the second occasion on which a group mentored by Mr Coote has won the Teagasc Special Award. “We wanted to create an easy and efficient way for farmers to measure the organic matter content of different soils in Ireland,” added Ms Fitzgerald.

Source: Irish Examiner January 19, 2026 16:52 UTC