The future of sustainable transportation in Ireland is set to be shaped by the innovative work of Project CONUNDRUM, a finalist in the prestigious National Challenge Fund. Led by Professor Niamh Moore-Cherry from University College Dublin, with Professor Brian Caulfield of Trinity’s School of Engineering also playing a key role, CONUNDRUM is one of five finalists in the Sustainable Communities Challenge category. This funding competition, part of the Government of Ireland's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), seeks to address pressing environmental and societal issues. The €65 million National Challenge Fund aims to provide solutions to a wide array of challenges, including achieving carbon reduction targets and addressing societal needs in both urban and rural Ireland.
About the National Challenge Fund and the NRRP
The National Challenge Fund is a highly competitive initiative designed to support projects that address significant environmental and social issues. Established under Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the programme draws on funding from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Through this funding, Ireland is set to receive €988 million, with a portion of that funding aimed at advancing sustainable projects like CONUNDRUM.
The Sustainable Communities Challenge, one of the key areas of the fund, focuses on developing solutions that ensure a sustainable future for Ireland’s urban and rural populations. Projects in this category aim to tackle key issues like environmental sustainability, community wellbeing, and resilience, and CONUNDRUM is poised to make a significant contribution.
What is Project CONUNDRUM?
The CONUNDRUM project is focused on creating a more sustainable and shared approach to community mobility. It aims to encourage and enable communities to adopt low-carbon transportation solutions that can serve as an alternative when traditional high-frequency public transport options are unavailable, particularly in rural areas.
Using Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, as a testbed, the project seeks to demonstrate how shared mobility solutions—such as shared electric vehicles and low-carbon transport initiatives—can help reduce carbon emissions while simultaneously reconnecting communities and addressing the issue of social isolation, which has become increasingly prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic.
By offering a sustainable mode of transportation for areas lacking comprehensive public transport infrastructure, CONUNDRUM aims to empower local communities to adopt more environmentally-friendly travel options and foster greater community interaction. In doing so, it aligns with Ireland’s carbon reduction goals while contributing to social resilience and economic regeneration in rural communities.
One of the key benefits of the CONUNDRUM project is its dual impact: carbon reduction and community building. Reducing transport-related emissions is a crucial step toward meeting Ireland’s sustainability goals, and CONUNDRUM directly addresses this by encouraging the use of shared, low-carbon transportation alternatives.
At the same time, the project also focuses on strengthening community wellbeing. The initiative offers opportunities to develop novel mobility options that meet the unique needs of rural communities and help overcome the challenge of isolation, particularly in areas where public transport is scarce. The shared mobility solutions introduced by CONUNDRUM are not just environmentally friendly; they are also designed to help residents of these communities re-engage with each other, build relationships, and foster a sense of belonging.
A distinguishing feature of the CONUNDRUM project is its commitment to co-creation—a participatory, multi-stakeholder approach to development. By engaging local communities, stakeholders, and the public in the design and implementation of shared mobility solutions, CONUNDRUM ensures that the solutions developed meet real, identified needs and resonate with the people they are intended to serve.
According to Professor Brian Caulfield, “When people are part of the discussion, they are more likely to buy into any major changes, and that is a big strength of this project. We are taking a multi-stakeholder, co-creation approach that will ensure lots of people not only feel heard but also own the development of the project.”
This collaborative approach is intended to create solutions that are more sustainable and effective in the long term, as the community members will have a sense of ownership over the mobility systems introduced in their areas. This shared ownership can also help drive the adoption of these systems on a broader scale, empowering individuals to make more sustainable mobility choices.
The CONUNDRUM project has received up to €500,000 in funding for the next 12 months, which will be used to advance prototyping and demonstrate the tangible benefits of the proposed shared mobility solutions. If CONUNDRUM is selected as the winner of its category next year, the team will be awarded an additional €1 million to further develop the project.
The next phase of development will focus on refining the project’s societal impact and ensuring the mobility solutions developed are scalable and replicable in other communities across Ireland. Should the project succeed in demonstrating its effectiveness in Enniscorthy, there is the potential for it to be rolled out more widely to other rural areas in need of sustainable transportation options.
Project CONUNDRUM represents a bold step forward in the quest for sustainable community mobility in Ireland. By empowering rural communities to adopt shared, low-carbon transportation solutions, the project offers a unique opportunity to address pressing environmental concerns while also rebuilding social connections that have been strained in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As CONUNDRUM moves forward with its prototyping phase, its success could provide a model for similar initiatives in other rural areas, ultimately helping Ireland achieve its sustainability and carbon reduction goals while enhancing the quality of life in communities across the country. With co-creation at its heart, the project promises to bring about meaningful change—one that is rooted in the needs and aspirations of the communities it aims to serve.