A new centre in Bord Bia’s headquarters in Dublin, The Thinking House, has been opened to give the Irish food, drink and horticulture industry access to the latest global trends, research, consumer insights and industry innovations."Success in the global marketplace and the premium positioning we're trying to achieve... can only come from deep understanding of consumers, Bord Bia’s chief executive Aidan Cotter said at the opening.

The Thinking House will be managed by Helen King, director of consumer insight, and a team of 12 professionals, with backgrounds ranging from psychology to librarianship.

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The creative space includes a trends zone to highlight the latest food and drink innovations from around the world. This includes interactive access to the findings of Bord Bia researchers sent to live, eat and shop with families in countries as diverse as China, Iran and Senegal. Their job involves "sleeping on the floor people in Vietnam" to observe how they consume food, said Cotter.

Past the packaging and branding gallery, a library gives access to international publications on food marketing including Bord Bia's own studies as well as eleven professional databases such as Mintel. "Access to these databases could cost a client €40,000," said head librarian Mairead McKeown as she demonstrated how a company can identify the manufacturer of a supermarket own-brand cheese to know its competitors. Instead, access to the Thinking House library is free, as is the time of librarians who help with searches.

Next door, a living room and its adjacent viewing room equipped with audio, video recording and live streaming capacity facilitate qualitative focus and discussion groups. Its capabilities were evident when King beamed the live video stream of a group of young people discussing healthy eating onto the screen in the middle of her presentation in the workshop space, which can accommodate 70 people. "If you're in Cork or in China and don't want to come to Dublin, we'll stream it to your desktop," she said.

Bord Bia invested €300,000 in setting up the 7,000m2 Thinking House, which is staffed by its existing consumers insights team. Access to services is free as far as the facilities and Bord Bia's staff are concerned. When additional expenses is required, the centre works on a co-investment basis, subsidising 50% of costs. "For example, our superbrands programme for small businesses, which includes qualitative research focus groups and consultancy is charged €5,000 to the client, while its typical cost would be €10,000," said King.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed was due to host a second launch event for leading representatives from the Irish agri-food and horticulture industry on Wednesday evening. Bord Bia opened its 13th international office in Singapore earlier this month.

Odile Evans and Ciara Leahy contributed reporting for this story.