Smart Balbriggan
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Project Overview:
Smart Balbriggan is an initiative to bring CONNECT’s research in designing community responsive networks, beyond the urban environment into the rural community in partnership with Fingal County Council.
With a focus on collaboration and a diverse range of partners, Smart Balbriggan aims to bring the citizens, the city, the innovators, and the universities together to solve the unique challenges in the Balbriggan ecosystem.
As Balbriggan has been designated as a decarbonising zone, solutions explored include how people transport themselves, active travel interventions and the use of resources which often need to be designed at a local level.
Smart Balbriggan endeavours to showcase what can happen when a unique town develops a level of engagement between the community and public bodies that is collaborative, to help improve the quality of life for all the people of the area.
Initiatives: EUCF (European City Facility)
https://www.eucityfacility.eu/
One key initiative for Smart Balbriggan is a funded initiative with EUCF, which has a vision to help European cities to overcome the barriers they face in financing and implementing their ambitious energy and climate strategies and action plans.
The initiative helps support sustainable energy investments at the local level to develop financial and legal capacity to transform local long-term energy and climate strategies (e.g.SEAPs, SECAPs, CAPs etc.) into appropriate investment concepts.
Smart Balbriggan is developing a project to support the decarbonising zone and climate action plans in Fingal County Council.
EUCF: From 2019 until 2024, the European City Facility has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 864212.
From 2022 until 2027, the European City Facility is co-funded by the European Union through the LIFE Programme.
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Initiatives: Climate Action Events
In 2023, Smart Balbriggan worked with the local SCEAL Arts Collective along with Active Travel in Fingal County Council, Sustainable Fingal and CARO to run a closed street Climate Action Event. The Railway Street Event showcased artworks of the main street in Balbriggan depicting the street without any cars, including a contest to recreate the famous LS Lowry Spinning in Balbriggan sketch.
The event included games for all ages made from circular economy provider RECREATE, with all materials recycled from industry waste to create the games. By closing the main street, it demonstrated the potential for the street when it is pedestrianised, which is one way of encouraging more healthy active travel while eliminating the emissions from the reliance on automobiles.
Initiatives: Creative Hub
A Creative Hub is being developed at the cross-section of arts and technology in Balbriggan, to open in 2025. The shared space includes workspaces for artists, alongside a space for young people to develop concepts, digitise them and then share them digitally in a studio classroom along with a gallery space for physical exhibitions for artists utilising technology.
The CONNECT Centre is partnered with Fingal County Council via Smart Balbriggan to explore funding and operating models for how this space can be utilised in the creative sector while also factoring in that Balbriggan is a decarbonising zone.
Funding Agency:
Fingal County Council, EU, SFI Science Foundation Ireland - For What’s Next (sfi.ie)
Principal Investigator:
Dan Kilper
Research staff:
Eamonn Donlyn
Daniel Ferrick
Collaborators:
Fingal County Council, EUCF Facility
Location:
Ireland