Sustainable, shared community mobility project among National Challenge Fund finalists

Posted on: 25 March 2025

Professor Brian Caulfield, from Trinity’s School of Engineering, is involved with project "CONUNDRUM", which has received Grow Phase funding as a finalist under the National Challenge Fund programme.

This €65 million competitive programme aims to deliver solutions for major environmental and societal issues and was established under the Government of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), developed by the Government so that Ireland can access funding under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Ireland is expected to receive €988 million in grants under the Facility.

Project “CONUNDRUM: Co-creating sustainable and shared community mobility”, led by Prof. Niamh Moore-Cherry, University College Dublin, is one of five finalists in the Sustainable Communities Challenge category, which asks researchers to seek solutions that ensure a sustainable future for Ireland’s urban and rural populations.

The CONUNDRUM project, which uses Enniscorthy in Co. Wexford as its testbed, aims to empower communities to adopt more sustainable modes of mobility by demonstrating how shared low-carbon transportation can plug the gap when high-frequency public transport might not be available.

As well as addressing carbon reduction targets, shared mobility could support community wealth building through the development of novel initiatives that address a community need and reconnect people to their place and each other, contributing to addressing the challenge of isolation that many more vulnerable communities feel post-COVID.

The team will use up to €500,000 funding over the next 12 months, advancing prototyping activities and demonstrating how the solutions they are developing can create tangible value by addressing the specific societal needs identified and refined in the previous phases of the funding programme. Should CONUNDRUM be adjudged the winner in its category next year, Prof. Moore-Cherry and Prof. Caulfield will secure €1 million to further develop the project.

Prof. Caulfield said: “Most people are aware that we need to tackle carbon emissions if we are to meet our sustainability goals, and while reducing transport emissions will help significantly it remains challenging to change behavioural patterns and many people – especially those in more rural areas of Ireland – do not have suitable, more sustainable options available.”

“Additionally, we need to get creative to engage with lower-carbon alternatives and to offer people workable choices, but also to actively enhance and sustain community wellbeing. When people are part of the discussion they are more likely to buy in to any major changes, and that is a big strength of this project as 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.”

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