Next Generation Storytelling: Nine Projects Selected for the Innovation in Storytelling Development Fund
Posted: 2nd April 2026
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and Animation Ireland are delighted to announce the nine company recipients of the 2025 / 2026 Innovation in Storytelling Development Fund (formerly the Animation Innovation and Immersive Development Fund). The fund, which is in collaboration with Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet and Eirmersive, is an investment in innovative, high-concept projects across areas such as immersive storytelling, VR, augmented reality and app development.
The successful proposals this year include a project in collaboration with local youth to transform urban spaces into interactive galleries via WebAR; an Interactive Accessibility Layer for VOD Platforms & enhanced ISL (Irish Sign Language) for Deaf and hard-of hearing audiences; a new real-time virtual production workflow for animated productions; and an interactive XR project that interrogates xenophobia and mob dynamics.
Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, said:
Screen Ireland is delighted to partner with Animation Ireland on this year’s Innovation in Storytelling Development Fund. This continued investment will enable nine original proposals to further explore new opportunities for creative visual storytelling, enhanced accessibility and production workflows using emerging technologies. Our congratulations to all of the successful recipients. We're looking forward to these ambitious projects making an impact with audiences and industry professionals.
Ronan McCabe, Chief Executive of Animation Ireland, said:
Animation Ireland is delighted to be associated with the Innovation in Storytelling Fund. Animation utilises high-tech software and hardware to bring stories from the page to the screen so it's essential that our industry remains at the forefront of innovation. The number and quality of the applications increase each year and our assessors have had a tough job choosing the beneficiaries of the funding. I congratulate the successful applicants and wish those not chosen this time, future success. I would also like to acknowledge Screen Ireland's funding of this initiative, now in its fifth iteration.
The Innovation in Storytelling Development Fund reinforces Screen Ireland’s ambition to highlight Ireland as a centre of excellence in animation, while diversifying the scale and breadth of what the industry has to offer. Since the fund was initially launched in 2021, Screen Ireland has invested in 38 innovative, high-concept development projects.
The selected projects and companies for the 2025 / 2026 Innovation in Storytelling Development Fund are:
ACE Business Solutions
Scotia Rising
Scotia Rising is an immersive storytelling prototype that fuses digital-twin scans of Queen Scotia’s Grave with virtual production, AI-assisted narrative and live performance. Using Unreal Engine, Metahumans and adaptive audio, the project will utilise AI to test a new pipeline for bringing together artwork and overlooked Irish myths into VR/MR experiences for heritage, tourism and education.
EGG VFX
Project Chimera
EGG VFX will develop the foundations for Ireland's first cloud-native CG character/creature pipeline, combining AI-assisted motion capture & tools with hybrid Houdini/Maya workflows. This project will boost Ireland's creature VFX pipeline capability at a critical moment — the new 40% VFX tax credit attracts high-budget productions, and this initiative is a key investment in the infrastructure of an Irish Studio to deliver creature work. This AI assisted pipeline will help to address the core economic challenge of creature VFX, delivering a proof-of-concept that will validate an industry-ready pipeline.
Hologen
Concept Proposal - ARt Walls Ireland
ARt Walls Ireland will transform two urban wall spaces, one in Belfast and one, in Dublin into interactive public galleries through cross-border augmented reality (AR) murals.
Co-created with local young people, each wall will reveal layered art, sound, and story brought to life through AI-assisted animation delivered via WebAR (Artivive prototype), showcasing creative collaboration across communities and presenting a scalable model for immersive public art across the island of Ireland.
Immersive Ireland Training and Production Ltd
AT THE EDGE OF US
AT THE EDGE OF US is an interactive XR project that explores xenophobia and mob dynamics. Employing technologies such as 4D video capture and next-generation world-building, audiences navigate a neuroscience-informed narrative within live-action scenes to gain a sense of how online hate escalates into real-world division.
Imvizar
Parallax: A Spatial Storytelling Exhibition
This project brings together spatial storytelling innovators Imvizar and renowned Irish artist Maser to create an augmented reality exhibition viewed through AR glasses. The artwork becomes a space audiences can walk through, with moving visuals and sound layered into the physical environment. The project launches in partnership with Seanchoíche, where artists and audiences share personal stories connected to art and creative expression.
JunieXR
Interactive Accessibility Layer for VOD Platforms & enhanced ISL
JunieXR’s AccessStream project pioneers accessibility innovation by increasing Sign Language provision on VOD and streaming platforms, with pilot testing on TG4’s children’s platform Cúla4.
AccessStream's UI and UX will be co-designed and validated with Deaf and hard-of-hearing end users to ensure the framework is firmly grounded in their priorities and meaningfully addresses the needs of children and young audiences.
This project will validate technical stability for mobile and Smart TV expansion. This positions TG4 at the forefront of inclusive media innovation while creating a scalable global model.
All characters and assets in the final deliverables will be designed and created by artists. AI will be used for enhancements, such as changing the background colour of the sign language recording or lighting enhancements, to match the style of the show, without infringing on the IP of the original media file.
Talegate Media & Publishing
Quilted Kids
Quilted KidsTM is a comic-book-meets-patchwork-quilt-style IP universe of personalized digital and A/R products for Preschoolers and their grownups. This project supports the R&D cycle for establishing workflows, cementing the Character IP, completing market research that enables the project partners to seek sponsorship, funding & licensing collaborations while simultaneously building consumer engagement.
Quilted Kids will use Generative AI strictly as a workflow accelerator, not a creator. They will deploy a local, offline instance of ComfyUI to train custom LoRAs (Low-Rank Adaptations) exclusively on our proprietary scan data and concept art. This allows us to rapidly generate texture variations (e.g., applying a specific "knitted weave" to complex terrain) while maintaining a "Closed-Loop" on IP rights.
The Valentine Parsley Company
Digital Earth (working title)
This project introduces a new real-time virtual production workflow that allows filmmakers to direct animated characters inside Unreal Engine while simultaneously shooting live-action plates. The system will be demonstrated through short hybrid nature sequences created for social platforms, using public-domain characters behaving like wildlife.
Unlike high-end real-time pipelines such as Wētā’s, which are designed for fully animated productions, this workflow is purpose built for hybrid live-action and CG integration. It is low cost, low carbon, and designed to be shared with Irish studios.
Following on from AI assisted proof of concept work, All characters and environments delivered under this fund will be created, modelled, rigged, and animated by our team of artists using the planned artist-led Unreal Engine workflow.
Trickshot Films
Slingshot (working title)
This project develops a production-ready scene preparation tool that automates the entire handoff between editorial and animation. A program that generates animation-ready scenes, prepares audio, manages handles, and reconstructs edits from returned renders. By replacing manual, error-prone processes with reliable automation, it gives studios of all sizes access to workflow capabilities normally limited to large in-house pipelines. AI may be used to assist the development of this tool but is not embedded in the operation of the tool itself and does not rely on AI to run.