Key facts
Qualification
Level 9 UCD accredited program (25 ECTS). Starts ONLINE on Monday October 20th.
Programme Highlights
Innovation and Design Thinking;
In demand skills including creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communications and learning agility;
An introduction to key sustainability concepts, terms, models and policy within an Irish context;
Applied sustainability skills: Carbon Footprinting, Climate Adaptation Planning, Sustainability Reporting;
A capstone two and a half month Innovation for Sustainability project in the workplace/community – your chance to apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills to a real challenge.
Duration
7 months, part-time. Scroll down to see full timetable below.
Fees and Funding
€3,750 (EU and Non-EU)
Pay only €375 or €0 through Springboard+
Funded places are available through the Springboard+ Initiative with 90 – 100% funding available to eligible applicants.
Eligibility criteria on Springboardcourses.ie
How to Apply
Deadline to apply is 13th October 2025
Start your application on Springboardcourses.ie
You will need a CV, short letter of motivation and a Level 8 transcript to get your application started.
Information Events & FAQs
Overview
This course is ideal for mid to senior managers across all sectors, wanting, or already with responsibility for sustainability within their team, department, organisation but without a background in innovation or sustainability.
The opportunity to work on real world projects gives a chance to up-skill and incorporates relevant workplace projects. This course gives students the knowledge, skills and mindset to translate sustainability challenges into opportunities using innovation. It runs live online over eight months and students will gain a range of career skills including:
Key Highlights:
- An introduction to key sustainability concepts, terms, models and policy within an Irish context;
- Applied sustainability skills (Carbon Footprinting, Climate Adaptation Planning, Sustainability Reporting);
- Innovation and Design Thinking;
- Transversal skills: Creativity, teamwork, communications, learning agility;
- A capstone two and a half month Innovation for Sustainability project in the workplace/community.
A key focus of this programme is to enable students to help organisations (enterprise and non-profit) integrate sustainability into their strategy, operations and governance, ensuring that sustainability will be grounded as a source of innovation for organisations driving social and economic change.
For example, the module Sustainability: Human Drivers of Innovation looks at the societal drivers for sustainability. Students will learn about the changes in policy, EU regulation and societal values that are requiring organisations to respond to calls to act on climate change, gender equality, diversity, poverty, and other issues. Through the programme students will learn to apply design thinking methodology to sustainability, to achieve innovation in products, processes and behaviour-changes.
Students will gain a holistic view of sustainability which includes the three pillars People, Planet, and Prosperity – to innovate in organisations and enable sustainable development
Our funders
Springboard+ is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union. See www.EUFunds.ie for more information.
Who is it for?
This course is ideal for mid to senior managers across all sectors, wanting, or already with responsibility for sustainability within their team/department/organisation but without a background in innovation or sustainability. It also suits people returning to workforce and seeking to add sustainability and innovation to their skillset, as well as those making a career pivot.
You might be:
- Working in a large corporate or an SME
- Making the leap into leadership
- Seeking to return to the workforce
- A carer or returner to work
- A career changer
Course structure
This fully immersive learning experience is delivered remotely through a combination of live online sessions, self-directed and reflective learning, project work and mentoring sessions.
You’ll learn from Innovation Academy’s inspiring educators and leading industry guest speakers from the comfort of your home or office. Nevertheless, this is a very social course, and you’ll collaborate with your fellow innovators on practical team challenges and projects.
The course is split into 4 modules, totalling 25 ECTS.
The first module is delivered completely in a five-day block live online from 9.30am to 1.30pm with self directed learning in the afternoon.
Modules two and three run weekly in the evenings live online, with a final class on a Saturday.
Module 4 runs over 4 months with live online classes from 9:30am – 1:30pm, plus external project work culminating in Action Learning Project presentations. Note on Action Learning Projects: Students undertake a project related to their own context and agreed with their facilitator. Projects can be individual or group projects.
Full participation is strictly required during the live classes and it is not possible to miss any classes except in exceptional circumstances where evidence is provided.
Afternoons during teaching weeks are flexible. There is typically self-led independent work that needs to take place after class and before the next morning’s class. This can be done at a time of your choosing and in the case of teamwork, in agreement with your team.
We recognise that many learners have personal or professional demands on their time that require their attention in the afternoon. This programme affords flexibility for people in this situation however, we strongly encourage you, if possible, to secure sufficient time off to immerse yourself in the programme during teaching weeks to allow for a fully transformative experience.
Learn more about each module below:
TIMETABLE
- Why choose us?
- Learning outcomes
- How to apply
- Assessment
- Who leads this course?
- Career opportunities
UCD Innovation Academy sits at the cutting-edge of education in Ireland, and the world.
We’ve been challenging students to see the world differently since 2010, when we became one of the first universities to offer experiential learning experiences.
Our team has been innovating ever since, shaping and refining our courses with input from some of the world’s best. Thousands of students have passed through the Academy, and each one has played their part in making our courses better and better. We have countless examples of our alumni accelerating their careers and changing the world from within organisations or as entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs.
As a student of this course you’ll be part of UCD, ranked among the top 1% of higher education institutions in the world. We’re Ireland’s global university and ranked Ireland’s best for graduate employability. And we currently have Professor Sir Mark Welland, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge acting as our External Examiner.
Here at the Innovation Academy we have everything you need for a learning experience you’ll never forget.
By the end of the Professional Diploma in Innovation for Sustainability, you will:
- Know key sustainability concepts, terms, models and policy within an Irish context;
- Know applied green skills including Carbon Footprinting, Climate Adaptation Planning, Sustainability Reporting;
- Put Innovation and Design Thinking into practice;
- Develop transversal skills including creativity, teamwork, communications, learning agility;
- Gain an innovator’s mindset;
- Build creative confidence via practical challenges;
- Build your CV with a substantial innovation project module;
- Build a peer network of friends, contacts and collaborators;
- Leave ready to apply your new skills to progress your career;
- Have a Level 9 qualification from UCD.
How To Apply
For self-funded students, please apply directly to UCD.
For eligible applicants who wish to avail of funding through the Springboard+ Initiative and are full-time residents in the Republic of Ireland, see the Springboard eligibility criteria here.
- FREE for eligible jobseekers receiving DEASP Payments
- FREE for returners to work and carers
- 90% subsidised (student pays €375) eligible individuals in employment or self-employment, and the formerly self-employed
If you are an international student or ineligible for Springboard funding, please contact a member of our recruitment team at innovation.academy@ucd.ie for assistance with direct application to the course. There is no alternative funding available for applicants who are ineligible for Springboard funding and are applying directly for this programme.
Please follow the steps below to apply for a Springboard funded place.
Step 1)
Please apply to only one of our available programme intakes below.
- Apply for the online October intake on Springboard for 90 – 100% funding
Step 2)
Upload the required documents listed below:
A) Current CV
B) Letter of Motivation (one page), addressing the following:
- Why you want to do the course at this time
- What you hope to achieve from doing this course
- What you can contribute to this course
C) A copy of your academic transcript to show that you have a minimum of an Undergraduate Honours Bachelor’s Degree (NFQ Level 8, 3-4 years of study). If you previously studied at UCD, please provide your UCD student number on a Word document/PDF. Please note a degree certificate/parchment unaccompanied by a transcript will not suffice. You need to upload your academic transcript or diploma supplement.
*Springboard+ is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union
D) Applicants who do not have a level 8 qualification can apply through Recognition of Prior Learning.
Under UCD’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy, consideration will be given on a case by case basis to applicants who do not hold a Level 8 primary degree (Honours Bachelor’s Degree) but who fulfil either of the following criteria:
Holding a Level 7 primary degree (Pass/Ordinary Bachelor’s Degree): upload your academic transcript of your Level 7 and demonstrate min. 2 years work experience on your CV. Professional references may be required.
No Level 7/8 degree: min. 5 years work experience and 2 recently dated professional/employment references required. These should be on headed paper or from an official email address and including the referees name, role and email address.
Please review your CV to ensure that it clearly demonstrates the following:
a. Any experience of leadership and self-direction;
b. Any experience of management or entrepreneurship;
c. A description of any responsibilities that demonstrate accountability, resource management, or client engagement (if applicable).
E) If English is not your first language, an English language qualification is required. Click HERE for full English Language Requirements for UCD.
Step 3)
If you are successful, you will be offered a provisional offer.
Following provisional offers, UCD Innovation Academy will request evidence of eligibility in respect of holding a valid PPSN; Nationality; Current Residency; 3 of 5 Years EU/EEA residency; and current Employment Status between six weeks and two weeks from the stated course start date.
It is only at this point that eligibility for funding through the HEA Springboard initiative can be ascertained.
Visit our FAQs here.
As the course involves continuous assessment, students must attend all class sessions.
The rest of the course is assessed through a combination of individual and team assignments, project reports and presentations.
All courses at the Innovation Academy are developed and facilitated by our exceptional team of educators.
The team boasts a wealth of experience from a wide variety of backgrounds. They are international entrepreneurs, doctors (both medical and academic), robotics experts, storytellers, conservationists, campaigners, and creatives.
What they all have in common is their love of the innovative, learning-by-doing approach to learning and their devotion to delivering a world-class student experience.
Read more about the people behind this course.
Demand for green skills is already outstripping supply.
This course will teach you the skills you need to become your organisation’s champion in innovation for sustainability.
What industry says:
84% of Irish business leaders selected climate change and sustainability strategy skills as the top skillset needed in the medium term to support their businesses’ green transition according to a study by ESRI.
In 2025 the World Economic Forum identified carbon intelligence as part of “the new skills triad” for the future of work, stating: “Carbon intelligence is fast becoming a universal skill, much like internet literacy once was. It cuts across sectors – from tech and retail to finance and hospitality – and offers a hedge against obsolescence when many roles are being reshaped or replaced by automation and AI.”
Real world relevance, including relevance for your career, is an integral part of this programme, supported through applied real world learning including enterprise challenges from real organisations, ongoing engagement with the world of work through external enterprise speakers, a teaching team who all bring substantial enterprise experience and a programme director with over 20 years experience in sustainability across education and enterprise.
This entire course is designed to equip participants with the job-ready skills that will help them manage innovation for sustainability with an SME, start-up, or large enterprise.
The real-world challenges that participants encounter during this course are designed to be applied to their current or future work environment, working in multi-disciplinary teams, with limited resources to prototype solutions and pitch them to senior decision-makers. If you’re in employment, this is ensures real time impact for your organisation from the programme.
The development of transversal skills is a vital part of the job readiness component of this programme: creativity, teamwork, communication skills and learning agility are threaded throughout the programme.
