An URBACT EcoCore initiative with Fingal County Council partnering with Smart Balbriggan and What the Hack!
This November, Smart Balbriggan hosted a one-day Hackathon event held in the town’s new Lark venue. A hackathon event offers innovative minds from across the region an opportunity to use their creative, technical, engineering, and problem-solving skills and make a difference for the future development of initiatives in the town. In coming together to work in these interdisciplinary teams to brainstorm, develop solutions to identified issues, participants can learn while also making a contribution towards solving real-world challenges. It provides an opportunity for like-minded individuals to network and forges valued connections for future work in North County Dublin.
On the day, collaborators presented from industry and academia, with technology, marketing and the local community disciplines present to develop unique solutions to existing challenges in business and society in the Balbriggan area.
Organised as part of the Urbact EcoCore Project, an initiative led by Balbriggan and supported by the project lead partner Fingal Co Co. The EcoCore project includes a network of nine cities facing similar challenges who share knowledge, solutions, insights, and outcomes to their common problems.
The challenge was developed in support of the Our Balbriggan rejuvenation plan which aims to develop the local economy in Balbriggan while attracting green and sustainable businesses that will benefit the area’s growth while tackling rejuvenation challenges within the town.
Aoife Sheridan, Fingal County Council Economic Development Officer opened the event by presenting the vision for Balbriggan and outlining its circular economy challenges and opportunities.
Participants discussed different issues Balbriggan faces and were organised into the following categories:
- Monitoring resources
- Business engagement
- Youth engagement
- Transport
- Community
Teams were formed on the basis of these categories and work began on the projects. The day was highly productive with innovative ideas developed throughout the day.
Hackathon participant Adam White said, “The Hackathon was an exciting event that successfully raised awareness of the challenges Balbriggan faces. It provided a platform for people to express their concerns while showcasing their solutions. Within my team, there was a genuine sense of enthusiasm for collaborating on innovative solutions that we could directly benefit from. I personally gained valuable insight and knowledge from the mentors on how our ideas could come to life, which I will hopefully apply in the future.”
The teams were mentored by Dónal Kearney, Director at Eco-Justice Ireland, Andre Baumann, Doctoral researcher at TCD, Boris Tomas, Smart Dún Laoghaire Programme Manager, Dr Sarah Zimmerman, Postdoctoral researcher and Eamonn Donlyn, Smart Balbriggan Programme Manager.
After the day’s work, the teams got a chance to pitch their solutions to the judges.
The judging panel included Dr Joanne Rourke- Environmental Scientist, Dublin City University, Conor Simpson- Regional Business Development Manager IDA Ireland, Deirdre Carroll- Senior Enterprise Development in the Fingal LEO, Sophie Reynolds- Circular Innovation and Policy Lead at Irish Manufacturing Research, Aoife Sheridan- Senior Executive Officer, Fingal County Council. Each team had 3 minutes to pitch their proposed solutions to the judges.
- Team Circulate pitched the installation of environmental monitoring sensors in industrial zones to collect data and create a baseline. The proposed solution would simplify the data and present it to the local authority. This would hold businesses accountable in respect of emissions with evidence-based data and produce actionable insights to ensure sustainability and a healthy environment.
- Team Community Hub pitched the creation of accessible spaces for physical activity, training, and community engagement.
- Team BART pitched the creation of a Balbriggan Area Rapid Transport
- Team Balbriggan Youth Council pitched an idea focusing on Empowering Youth through the Circular Economy.
- Team Fiji (Filter In Jobs In) which proposed a dashboard run by data analysts using selected variables to benchmark companies applying to do business in the Stephenstown Industrial Zone in Balbriggan, which the Council aims to develop as an Eco industrial park.
- Team Circ_it! pitched an idea enabling businesses to connect to the circular economy.
Team Circ_it took the overall winner accolade for their idea to create of a web platform that allows businesses to sell excess waste products as raw materials, connecting them to the circular economy.
The mentors were impressed with the teamwork of the participants on the day, with Eamonn Donlyn of Smart Balbriggan sharing his insights, “The concept of sustainability can often seem distant and vague making it difficult to problem solve, but the Hackathon teams worked very closely together with most having only met on the day, the energy was brilliant. Every team got stuck into the details from the outset and work together to really define specific problems, showing that creative solutions that are realistic can be found within the circular economy context.”
Aoife Sheridan, a judge on the panel from the Urbact EcoCore project team was equally impressed by the solutions developed by the teams,
“There was a great turnout for the Hackathon from people all over Dublin and beyond and from many different backgrounds and disciplines. The teams developed really innovative and detailed solutions for some of the real-world challenges that Fingal County County and the EcoCore project team are working on. The events showed there us massive potential for collaboration in the area of the circular economy in Fingal particularly in Balbriggan. The judges decisions were challenging due to the high standard of concepts developed by the teams. Judges were delighted to see such a diverse mix of people and ideas and approaches to the challenges at the event and we look forward to bringing the same energy to further engagements in Balbriggan.”