An image entitled “Bee the Change” has been announced as the overall winner of Teagasc’s Vision of Research and Innovation photo competition.

The winning image was taken by taken by Fiona Hutton, Teagasc Plant Pathology Research Laboratory manager.

She currently works at the Department of Crops, Environment and Land Use, Oak Park where the photograph was taken.

The picture shows a flowering phacelia cover crop alive with pollinators, such as the bumblebee depicted.

The Teagasc TillageCare project aims to show how practices such as cover cropping and the use of organic manures can improve soil health, store more carbon, and reduce nutrient losses to water.

Photo competition

The photo competition, running since 2015, is open to all Teagasc staff and students with entrants aiming to visually capture the wide variety of research innovations related to their area of work.

This year’s competition attracted 82 entries, with the top 12 selected for an exhibition held in Teagasc Head Office in Oak Park House, as part of the Teagasc Science Week activities.

Attendees at the event were also taken on a guided tour of the historical building and former home of MP Henry Bruen.

The 12 shortlisted images featured in the exhibition were as follows:

“Mosaic of flavor” by Digvijay Digvijay and Prabin Lamichhane;
“Sheep at sunset - Achill Bay” by Raquel Caetano Ferreira;
“No Climbing on the Timber Stacks” by Derek Gibson;
“Culturable Fungal Diversity Associated with Common Alder” by Emma Fuller;
“Bee the Change” by Fiona Hutton;
“A tree with a future” by Frances McHugh;
“From grass to glass” by Andre Brodkorb;
“Bees weaving life’s threads on a globe thistle” by Mariana Macas and Barbara Biduski;
“A kaleidoscope of colour - eating with our eyes” by Katie Hetherington;
“Clover, Methane and Sheep” by Eoin Dunne;
“Hidden Allies: Macrofungi and forest health” by Dheeraj Rathore;
“Icing on the Cage” by Maximilian Schughart.

These images will be now included in the annual Teagasc calendar which will be delivered to stakeholders before Christmas.

This year’s photography competition was judged by a panel including Catriona Boyle, Teagasc; Ronan Bree, Dundalk Institute of Technology and Chaosheng Zhang, University of Galway.

Teagasc Director, Professor Frank O’Mara congratulated all the finalists on the quality of the images they captured through the course of their work.