23 June 2025
A team of researchers at Trinity College Dublin has received €500,000 in funding to develop an AI-enabled platform to help teachers create assessments and provide formative feedback to learners.
The project is called Diotima and is supported by The Learnovate Centre, a global research and innovation centre in learning technology in Trinity College Dublin. Diotima began its partnership with Learnovate in February this year and is expected to spin out as a company in 2026.
The €500,000 funding was granted under Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund, which supports third-level researchers to translate their research into innovative and commercially viable products, services and companies.
Diotima supports teaching practice by using responsible AI to provide learners with feedback, leading to more and better assessments and improved learning outcomes for students, and a more manageable workload for teachers.
The project was co-founded by Siobhan Ryan, a former secondary school teacher, biochemist and environmental scientist, and Jonathan Dempsey, an EdTech professional with both start-up and corporate experience.
Associate Professor Ann Devitt, Head of the Trinity School of Education, and Carl Vogel, Professor of Computational Linguistics and Director of the Trinity Centre for Computing and Language Studies, are serving as co-principal investigators on the project.
Diotima received the funding in February. Since then, the project leaders have established an education advisory group formed of representatives from post-primary and professional education organisations.
The Enterprise Ireland funding has facilitated the hiring of two post-doctoral researchers. They are now leading AI research ahead of the launch of an initial version of the platform in September 2025. Diotima aims to conduct two major trials of the platform as they also seek investment.
Co-founder Siobhan Ryan is Diotima’s Learning Lead. After a 12-year career in the brewing industry with Diageo, Siobhan re-trained as a secondary school teacher before leaving the profession to develop the business case for a formative assessment and feedback platform. Her experience in the classroom made her realise that she could have a greater impact by leveraging AI to create a platform to support teachers in a safe, transparent, and empowering way.
Her fellow co-founder Jonathan Dempsey is Commercial Lead at Diotima. He had been CEO of the Enterprise Ireland-backed EdTech firm Digitary, which is now part of multinational Instructure Inc. He held the role of Director of UK and Ireland for US education system provider Ellucian and Head of Education and Education Platforms for Europe with Indian multinational TCS. Jonathan has a wealth of experience at bringing education technologies to market.
Learnovate Centre Director Nessa McEniff says:
“We are delighted to have collaborated with the Diotima team to secure €500,000 investment from Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund. Diotima promises to develop into a revolutionary platform for learners in secondary schools and professional education organisations, delivering formative feedback and better outcomes overall. We look forward to supporting them further as they continue to develop the platform in the months ahead.”
Enterprise Ireland Head of Research, Innovation and Infrastructure Marina Donohoe says:
“Enterprise Ireland is delighted to support Diotima under the Commercialisation Fund. We look forward to seeing them continue in their mission to transform teaching practice through AI enabled assessment and feedback. We believe that the combination of excellence in AI and in education from Trinity College, expertise in education technology from the Learnovate Centre and focus on compliance with the EU AI Act and other regulations will see the Diotima team make a global impact”.
Diotima Learning Lead and co-founder Siobhan Ryan says:
“We’re delighted to have received such a significant award from the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund. The investment is already having a positive effect, allowing us to hire two post-doctoral researchers in AI whose work has been vital to progressing the platform towards the first testing phase.
“We’re extremely grateful to Learnovate for helping us gain access to the funding from Enterprise Ireland, as well as their assistance in hiring and technical expertise. Our partnership with Learnovate has exceeded our expectations and we look forward to building on that relationship as we strive towards spinning out in 2026.”
Diotima Commercial Lead and co-founder Jonathan Dempsey says:
“We did a detailed feasibility study with teachers and with education organisations for the funding application that showed that educators agree unanimously that individualised feedback for learners is powerful, but difficult for teachers, particularly with large classes. It also showed that there is a massive appetite to use AI to help, but also concerns about the reliability of feedback and about compliance with the EU AI Act. Diotima is being built to deliver reliable feedback with AI and is engineered for compliance from the start.”
Pictured at Trinity College Dublin (l-r): Learnovate Centre Director Nessa McEniff; Associate Professor Ann Devitt, Head of the Trinity School of Education; Diotima Commercial Lead and co-founder Jonathan Dempsey; Tom Pollock, Learnovate Commercialisation Manager; and Diotima Learning Lead and co-founder Siobhan Ryan
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