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Building Ireland’s next generation of agrifood talent: Professor Karina Pierce sets out five priorities for the future of Irish agrifood education.

Technology, sustainability and genetics will all shape the future of Irish agrifood, but Professor Karina Pierce believes its competitiveness will ultimately depend on people and on how closely industry and education work together to develop them.

In this keynote interview for our 2026 Food & Agribusiness Report, with our Group Head of Growth and Agrifood Consulting, David Leydon, the newly appointed Head of the University College Dublin School of Agriculture and Food Science sets out five priorities for the next five years and explains why industry has become one of the university’s most important teachers.

Finding good people has become one of the defining challenges facing Irish agrifood businesses. It is a concern we hear repeatedly from dairy processors, advisory firms, agtech companies and family-owned businesses. Businesses can invest in new technology and set ambitious growth plans, but without talented people to lead them, strategy quickly reaches its limits.

Few people have a better vantage point on that challenge than Professor Karina Pierce. Appointed in the School’s centenary year and the first woman to hold the position, Karina leads Ireland’s largest single pipeline of agrifood graduates. Over more than two decades as an academic, researcher and Programme Director of the Dairy Business degree, complemented by significant board experience across the agrifood sector, she has watched both agriculture and its future workforce evolve. For Karina, the conversation about talent is about producing graduates with a broader set of capabilities and ensuring universities and industry work far more closely together in shaping them.

The story first appeared in our 2026 Food & Agribusiness Report

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Five priorities for Irish agrifood

Karina is clear that her ambition extends well beyond running Ireland’s leading agricultural school. Over the next five years she wants the School to become even more outward-looking and more closely connected to the industry it serves, built around five priorities:

Building deeper partnerships with industry, ensuring businesses help shape teaching and research rather than simply recruiting graduates at the end of the process.

Embedding AI across the curriculum, equipping graduates to apply judgement, challenge AI outputs and work confidently alongside rapidly evolving technology.

Developing sharper communication skills, recognising that leadership, teamwork and the ability to influence others are every bit as valuable as technical expertise.

Creating a founder culture, encouraging students to think entrepreneurially, solve real-world problems and develop the confidence to create opportunities rather than simply seek employment.

Driving progress on generational renewal, working with industry and policymakers on one of the sector’s most significant long-term challenges.

Changing students

The UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science today is a very different institution from the one Karina entered as a student. Fourteen undergraduate programmes serve almost every part of the agrifood value chain, reflecting an industry that has become significantly more diverse. While some graduates still return to primary agriculture, many now build careers across advisory services, food processing, agri-business, finance, sustainability and technology. That diversity is reflected in the students themselves. Many still come from farming families, although increasingly they are not the son or daughter who will inherit the farm but one of several siblings who grew up immersed in agriculture and see their future contributing to the industry in other ways.

Alongside them sits a steadily growing cohort with no farming background at all, drawn by an industry that now offers careers spanning business, science, technology and innovation, with international opportunities in many organisations. Rather than seeing this changing demographic as a challenge, Karina believes it is one of Irish agriculture's strengths. The sector is navigating climate change, shifting consumer expectations, AI, data-driven decision-making, people shortages and generational renewal simultaneously. Solving challenges of that scale requires people willing to challenge established assumptions. As Karina observes, some of the most valuable ideas come from those who arrive without generations of agricultural tradition behind them.

One shift does concern her, as many as 70% of new students now come from Dublin and six surrounding counties, a remarkable change from the geographically diverse classrooms she remembers as a student. Rising accommodation costs, the cost-of-living crisis and the growth of regional agricultural programmes have all altered where students choose to study. Karina remembers lecture theatres filled with students from every corner of Ireland, from west Kerry to the northern tip of Donegal, bringing different farming systems and perspectives into every discussion. “It was a melting pot,” she reflects. Today’s students are every bit as capable, but their experience before arriving at university is increasingly shaped by geography and by a more digital world.

The skills employers now value most

The traditional foundations of an agricultural education matter as much as ever. When Karina speaks with organisations such as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or Teagasc, they emphasise that scientific capability, soil science, biology, statistics and analytical rigour remain fundamental to producing graduates capable of supporting one of Ireland’s most important indigenous industries. Industry expects technical knowledge, but on its own it is no longer enough. Employers want graduates who can interpret data rather than simply produce it, work across disciplines, explain complex ideas clearly and think critically in a world where AI will increasingly handle routine analysis.

Karina argues that employers place growing value on graduates who can present ideas, connect with people and analyse information critically. The ability “to present, to talk, to connect, to critically analyse” is becoming as important as technical capability. As AI accelerates, those distinctly human capabilities become more valuable rather than less. Technology may generate information, but judgement, communication and leadership remain difficult to automate.

Developing those skills has become harder. Today’s students have grown up communicating through smartphones and social media rather than face to face and Karina notices the difference. Students entering first year are often more hesitant to speak in lecture theatres than previous generations were. Confidence builds over time, but universities can no longer assume it arrives naturally alongside academic achievement. That is why, in her view, some of the most important learning now happens outside the lecture theatre. AgSoc committees, debating competitions, group projects and Careers Day all require students to negotiate, persuade and collaborate. These capabilities cannot easily be taught through lectures alone. In an era when almost every lecture can be watched online, Karina believes the case for physically being on campus has become stronger, not weaker.

Preparing graduates for an AI world

Asked how well the School is preparing students for an AI-driven future, Karina is candid: “We need to do a much better job.” She describes a school learning alongside the industries it serves. Whether advising farmers, analysing markets or developing breeding programmes, graduates will increasingly work alongside AI rather than independently of it.

The challenge for universities is teaching students how to think, as it has always been. Students are increasingly encouraged to use AI in project work, but with an important condition, they must demonstrate they can question its outputs, challenge assumptions and apply their own judgement, which mirrors exactly what employers will expect. AI may dramatically reduce the time it takes to gather information or generate first drafts, but it cannot replace experience, curiosity or critical thinking. The graduates who thrive will be those who know the right prompts, as well as when AI is wrong, incomplete or missing the wider context.

Karina is clear that universities cannot navigate this transition alone. UCD is developing institution-wide AI strategies and exploring a dedicated AI centre for the university and industry. Yet she repeatedly returns to the same conclusion, industry itself has become one of the university's most important teachers, often implementing AI in ways academia will only encounter months later, which makes collaboration essential.

Building more than graduates

Technology is only one part of Karina's vision for the next five years. Asked what success would look like at the end of her term, she spoke about culture: creating an environment where students develop as confident problem-solvers, entrepreneurial thinkers and future leaders, as well as graduates with excellent degrees.

She has an ambition to create a "founder culture". Karina sees founder culture as creating opportunities for students to work on real industry problems, develop entrepreneurial thinking and build confidence beyond the classroom. That culture will develop first through extracurricular activity and closer engagement with industry, before becoming more deeply embedded in academic programmes.

The idea reflects a broader change across higher education, where employers increasingly recruit for mindset as much as knowledge. Technical expertise remains essential, but businesses also need graduates who will take the initiative and respond confidently to problems with no textbook solution. Those qualities develop through live projects, placements and industry partnerships, not lectures alone. That is why Karina sees industry both as a destination for graduates, and as an active partner in their development. If Irish agribusiness wants graduates who understand commercial reality, business leaders need to help shape that reality inside universities.

From research to partnership

Throughout the interview, Karina repeatedly returns to a simple proposition, universities and industry should work together from the beginning of a problem, not only at the end. Too often, research has followed a familiar model, academics identify a question, undertake the work and eventually present the findings to industry for implementation. Karina believes there is an opportunity for businesses to become involved much earlier, helping shape research questions from the outset rather than only engaging once findings have been produced.

That philosophy is already visible at UCD Lyons Farm, where major developments, from infrastructure to calf facilities and the FBD Agricultural Science Centre, have been built through close collaboration with industry partners.

The same thinking underpins the School’s growing focus on generational renewal. Recognising succession and rural viability as strategic challenges for the sector, UCD has created a dedicated academic role at the intersection of academia, industry and public policy, covering questions from part-time farming and income diversification to European policy development.

A challenge for Irish agribusiness

Towards the end of the discussion, Karina was asked what she would say to the CEO who insists, “I just can’t find good people”. Karina believes the issue is not always a shortage of talent, but also the competition to attract it. Competition for exceptional graduates exists in every sector and the businesses that consistently attract the best people understand that graduates now judge employers differently from previous generations. Salary matters, but so do purpose, culture, leadership and the chance to build a meaningful career. Graduates increasingly want to know where a business is going before deciding whether they want to be part of its journey.

Her confidence in the next generation is unmistakable. Despite the public narrative that often surrounds agriculture, she sees talented, ambitious and enthusiastic young people continuing to choose agrifood because they see a future in the sector. The opportunity and perhaps the responsibility for industry is to match that optimism, and to give those graduates compelling reasons to build their careers here.

David Leydon

Talk to David Leydon

Group Head of Growth & Agrifood Consulting087 9908227davidleydon@ifac.ieLinkedin