What began as an international business connection has evolved into a real-world demonstration of how immersive technologies can transform one of the world's most highly regulated manufacturing sectors.

Through the European-funded XR2INDUSTRY programme, Irish immersive technology company XR Ireland and Latvian pharmaceutical manufacturer PharmIdea Latvia have embarked on a pioneering collaboration exploring the role of augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and embedded artificial intelligence in sterile pharmaceutical production.

The initiative is about more than technology alone. It represents a growing partnership between Ireland and Latvia, bringing together expertise in advanced manufacturing, pharmaceutical production and immersive technologies to address some of the industry's most persistent challenges.

Last week was one of those weeks that reminds what a privilege it is to be representing Ireland's immersive and creative industry ecosystems in important conversations at both an All-Ireland and European level.

I started in Brussels at Creative Skills Week 2026, where it was fantastic to see Ireland so well represented through the work of Creative Futures Academy and CCIS Skillnet. Congratulations to all of the Irish voices who gave insightful contributions to discussions on creative skills, creative confidence, ecosystem development and how culture and creativity can help Europe navigate complex social, economic and technological change. The event brought together policymakers, educators, industry leaders and creatives from across Europe to explore how creative skills can drive innovation far beyond the cultural and creative sectors.

Animotive has had an enormous response to the launch of Kimodo.

“Over 7,000 animations. 1.3 million frames. Almost 700 minutes of animation generated on our cloud servers, all from real usage.”

Animotive Kimodo turns a pose and a prompt into usable animation data inside Unreal Engine. It’s built to speed up the animator's workflow rather than replace it. These numbers are from developers and studios putting it to work daily on Cinematics, NPC animation, In-betweening and Prototyping.

As the company explains, “Every animation pipeline has the same bottleneck: getting from nothing to a first pass. With Animotive Kimodo, that first pass takes as long as it takes to type a sentence. Prompt a movement, pin your character's position or pose at key moments to guide the result, and the animation lands retargeted onto…

We're delighted to see Dr Zeta Dooly, a member of Eirmersive through SETU, begin her TU RISE research sabbatical focused on exploring how emerging technologies can support teaching, learning and educational policy.

As Zeta shares:

"Over the next year I'll be working closely with the Department of Education and Youth, Ard Scoil na Mara and Fenor National School, exploring how VR and AI can be adopted in primary and post-primary classrooms in ways that are inclusive, evidence-based, and genuinely useful for teachers and learners."

This important work will examine how immersive technologies and AI can be integrated into education in a way that is practical, responsible and aligned with the needs of educators and students. The programme aims to create a roadmap that connects research, policy and classroom practice, while…

Eirmersive member Grace Dinan, Founder of JunieXR, has received international recognition for her innovative accessibility technology following a successful journey through the 2026 Creative Business Cup competition.

In August, JunieXR was named the national winner of Creative Business Cup Ireland 2026, securing the opportunity to represent Ireland at the prestigious Creative Business Cup Global Finals in Copenhagen. The achievement marked a significant milestone for the company and highlighted the growing impact of Irish innovation in the creative technology sector.

The judging panel selected JunieXR for its pioneering solution, JunieStream, a platform that brings sign language interpretation, adaptive captions and interactive accessibility features directly into streaming and video-on-demand services. By embedding accessibility tools…

Eirmersive member Virtual Museum of Art (VMA) is continuing to demonstrate the transformative potential of immersive technologies through a series of projects spanning artistic exhibition, international knowledge exchange and cross-border creative collaboration.

The journey began with FUTUROPIA, a groundbreaking virtual exhibition launched for Culture Night Ireland 2023. Showcasing the work of 21 Irish artists based both in Ireland and around the world, the exhibition explored the intersection of art and technology, presenting audiences with innovative and thought-provoking creative experiences in virtual space.

Reflecting on the project's impact, VMA described how "FUTUROPIA has travelled to numerous events, celebrating and promoting the work of Irish artists to audiences across Ireland and Europe."

The MSLETB XRHub in Sligo recently welcomed partners from Denmark and colleagues from Education and Training Boards (ETBs) across Ireland for a specialised training programme focused on the use of immersive technology in wind energy education.

The visit brought together further education and training practitioners from eight ETBs who will be delivering the new Wind Energy with Immersive Technology Level 5 Micro Qualification, a programme designed to equip learners with industry-relevant skills for Ireland's growing renewable energy sector.

At the centre of the initiative is virtual reality training software developed by Danish company Kanda, which enables learners to experience realistic wind turbine environments before stepping onto a live work site. Through immersive simulations, participants can develop practical skills and confidence in a safe and controlled setting.

Dive into a full-day exploration of cutting-edge technologies, including AI, Immersive Technologies (VR/AR/MR) and Virtual Production brought to you by Eirmersive and funded by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland.

Learn about tools such as Animotive, DeepMotion, LUMA AI, virtual production for 2D animation tool sets and AI-powered 2D-to-3D asset creation.

This workshop will give you insights into how emerging tools can become part of your workflow from a fantastic team made up of Camille Donegan, Sean Burns, Ryan Mckenna, Shane Ross Murphy and Jess Harkin.

Whether you’re a professional working in screen, gaming, animation, theatre or a tech-savvy creative or, you’re just curious, this workshop is designed to empower creatives with some of the most cutting-edge tools. Bring your own laptop so you can follow along and gain hands-on experience with the tech!

Ireland currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. That makes this the right moment to ensure immersive media has a place within Europe's future cultural and creative funding programmes.

Eirmersive has joined XR4Europe and organisations from 10 countries in calling for immersive media and XR to be explicitly recognised within AgoraEU's MEDIA+ strand (the replacement of the Creative Europe programme 2021-2027).

Without dedicated recognition, one of Europe's fastest-growing creative sectors risks being overlooked despite already being recognised within EU policy.

We're delighted to launch the new Eirmersive Member Map, a visual showcase of the organisations driving immersive technology innovation across the island of Ireland. Explore the map here: Eirmersive Member Map.

What stands out immediately is the geographic spread of our members. From established technology hubs to emerging regional centres of innovation, the map highlights a sector that is both growing and widely distributed across Ireland.

This is an important marker of the industry's evolution. Globally, immersive technologies such as XR, spatial computing and digital twins are moving from experimental applications into mainstream use across manufacturing, healthcare, education, training, culture and entertainment. As adoption accelerates internationally, Ireland's immersive sector is maturing alongside it.

What if you could walk through a biomethane plant without ever stepping on site? That’s the question answered by Eirmersive member Stephen Bolger with is Virtual Reality application that brings a biomethane plant into an immersive environment, enabling users to explore the facility and better understand its operation through interactive visualisation and information hotspots.

Built to run natively on Meta Quest 3, Stephen was responsible for the complete XR development of the application in Unity, including interactions, lighting, optimisation, navigation and deployment for standalone VR.

Expressing his gratitude to the Biomethane Development Office for the opportunity to deliver the application, Stephen said: “It has been a great experience to contribute to such an innovative project”.

Stephen is open to collaborations and looking forward to taking on more XR projects. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat.

The momentum behind spatial computing continues to build, with Imvizar marking two significant milestones that demonstrate both the growing adoption of immersive technologies and the importance of developing the next generation of creators.

In August it delivered its first SPECS x Salesforce experience at Salesforce Tower Dublin, building on the success of an earlier mobile augmented reality activation that attracted thousands of downloads. The experience has now been adapted for AR smart glasses, giving participants an opportunity to engage with digital content in a more immersive and intuitive way.

The activation once again highlighted one of the most compelling aspects of wearable augmented reality: the speed at which first-time users become comfortable with the technology. Despite having little or no previous exposure to AR glasses, participants quickly embraced the experience, demonstrating how accessible and engaging spatial computing is becoming.