Develop your team's innovation skills.
Explore programmes in innovation management, AI and strategic innovation, along with a large catalogue of programmes available in-house to your team.
One capability route
Use a programme when structured learning is the right answer.
A programme gives a team a shared method, guided practice and time to apply the learning. If the issue first needs diagnosis, an outside perspective or peer input, start on the Capability page instead.
Programme families
Choose the capability your team needs next.
Move from interest to useful application
AI Transformation for Business Leaders · AI for Personal Productivity
Build the judgement and practical skills needed to use AI well. Options range from strategic adoption and organisational change to focused training that helps people work more effectively in the roles they already have.
AI programmes →Build a repeatable system
Foundations for Strategic Innovation · Accelerating Strategic Innovation
Develop the structures, roles and working practices that help ideas move from strategy to delivery. For leaders, innovation champions and cross-functional teams building a more systematic approach. Where a programme is mapped to ISO 56001 its page sets out the scope — taking part in a programme is not certification.
Innovation management programmes →Make progress with limited time and capacity
Strategic Innovation & Entrepreneurship for SMEs
For owner-managers and smaller leadership teams making strategic choices while keeping the day-to-day business moving. Build a practical route from opportunities to priorities to action. Next cohort September 2026.
Strategic Innovation for SMEs →Cross-Sector Mentoring
Mid-career RD&I professionals, paired with senior practitioners.
A structured six-month pairing with a senior practitioner from another member company, plus one-to-one mentoring for a specific challenge at any time of year.
Explore mentoring →
The Innovators Edge Series
Stay current without committing to a full programme.
The Innovators Edge Series brings focused webinars and briefings on emerging methods, technologies and business questions. Use it to stay informed, test an idea, or decide whether your team needs deeper development.
Assessment and recognition
Assessment and recognition.
Check each programme's details for its assessment, completion requirements and any digital badge or CPD recognition. IRDG is a member of the CPD Certification Service and can allocate CPD hours on a range of programmes; where hours apply, the booking page states them. Contact the programme team with questions about attendance records or certificates.
Public programmes run in person, online or as a hybrid of the two, and IRDG also delivers in-company programmes for a single organisation's team.
Know what you are choosing
Clear information, programme by programme.
Purpose and outcomes
Who it is for, the problem it addresses, and what participants should be able to do afterwards.
Format and commitment
Session structure, delivery mode, duration, work between sessions and current dates.
Recognition
Assessment, CPD approving body and hours, and badge criteria — where each applies.
Cost and eligibility
The standard fee, any member or Skillnet-supported rate, eligibility, and what is required at registration.
Where the depth comes from
Methods your team can apply.
Innovation management
The international standard for an innovation management system. The leadership programmes align to it, which is what makes them useful to an organisation pursuing certification rather than only to the individual attending.
Lean product development
Reducing the distance between an idea and something a customer can react to — flow, batch size, decision points and the cost of carrying unvalidated work.
Design thinking
Working from the problem a customer actually has rather than the solution the organisation already wanted to build. Used across the programme range, not treated as a separate module.
Applied AI
IRDG's AI programmes have run with Irish companies over several cohorts, public and in-house. That gives the AI family a record of what has worked and what has not.
How the programmes ran in 2025.
The 2025 year in full
AI for Personal Productivity, Foundations for Strategic Innovation and Strategic Innovation & Entrepreneurship for SMEs all ran in 2025, alongside briefings, clinics and Innovators Edge sessions. The archive lists every dated session.
Training support
IRDG Innovation Skillnet.
IRDG Innovation Skillnet, supported by Skillnet Ireland, supports enterprise-led training for eligible companies and participants. Funding, supported rates, eligibility and registration requirements vary by programme — the relevant listing carries the actual supported price and the eligibility conditions. Check it, or ask the team, before booking.
Ask about this programme
Choosing between programmes? Planning development for a full team? Unsure about Skillnet eligibility? Give us the context and we will point you towards the relevant option — or tell you if a programme is not the answer. Programme enquiries go to Josh Blake, Network Manager, IRDG Innovation Skillnet.