PlasmaPLUS at the National Ploughing Championships 2025
PlasmaPLUS promoting Science and Cold Atmospheric Plasma in Biomedical Applications at the National Ploughing Championships 2025
The PlasmaPLUS group along with the TU Dublin Faculty of Sciences and Health were delighted to attend the “2025 National Ploughing Championships” hosted in Screegan, Co. Offaly, Ireland, on 16th – 18th September 2025.
The National Ploughing Championships are Europe’s largest outdoor agricultural trade exhibition, where many Irish businesses showcase their product and services including food and crafts, farming machinery and livestock. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors of all ages and backgrounds, farmers and businesses. While the ploughing and other contests are held, the National Ploughing Championships is a large-scale marketplace and a platform for innovation, education, and networking.
TU Dublin had set up a stand highlighting the Schools within the Faculty of Sciences and Health, and the various on-going research projects with the aim to promote public involvement and interest in STEM and education. TU Dublin had a great opportunity to promote higher-level education with youth at the Championships. Many secondary schools pupils attend the Championships for an opportunity to visit University stands and explore third-level education options by asking questions, interacting with the university attendees and interactive activities, collecting prospectus and course brochures, etc.
PlasmaPLUS was a proud representative of the School of Food Science and Environmental Health, informing the public about the aspects and benefits of the project and Cold Atmospheric Plasma in the Oncology field. The attending project members aimed to make science interesting and fun to the public and increase project outreach by organizing several interactive activities for the public including guessing games with prices, pipetting exercises, plasma ball demonstrations, simple project descriptors and the hit activity of non-Newtonian fluid demonstration using Custard.
The activities received very positively with visitors of all ages, with many becoming amateur scientists with their newfound knowledge on science and Plasma in medicine and hands-on experience with non-Newtonian fluids and pipetting. This included a presidential candidate, Jim Gavin and the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin.
While at the Championships on the 17th of September, the attendees of course couldn’t forget about the International Microorganism Day which is celebrated annually to raise public awareness about the importance of microbes and the field of microbiology.
Together with the Faculty of Science and Health, PlasmaPLUS members had a great time promoting STEM at the National Ploughing Championships 2025. By hands-on activities and interactive demonstrations, audiences of all ages and backgrounds were delighted to engage with the project and STEM, highlighting the importance of promoting STEM and public involvement in research. The attendees worked hard to showcase cutting-edge research occurring at TU Dublin and the real-world applications of STEM, from forensics to food science to oncology, highlighting its relevance in everyday life. The university’s presence aimed to spark interest in STEM careers and encourage young people to explore the possibilities of science and innovation in shaping the future.