Projects funded under the Digital Innovation Programme 2021

The Digital Innovation Programme is an initiative of the Department of Rural and Community Development. It is designed to encourage local authority led projects that support digital development. These projects must promote, support, or otherwise advance at least one of the seven pillars of digital maturity:

• Digital Skills
• Infrastructure
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Digital Economy & Employment
• Digital Services
• Community & Culture
• Digital Transition

In 2021 there were two streams of funding:

• Innovation

These projects include trialling of entirely new technologies or innovative uses of existing technologies. Research may also be funded under this stream. The maximum award in this stream will be €75,000.

• Scaling-up

This stream provided funds to scale-up an already proven technology or initiative. For example, a project that has only been trialled at a municipal level in Ireland could be scaled-up to county level, or county level to national level. Alternatively, a project that sought to benefit a particular cohort within society or address a specific challenge could be broadened to include additional cohorts / challenges. The maximum award under this stream will be €200,000.

Project: Hare’s Corner

Stream: Scaling

Funding awarded: €44,000

This project aims to create a technical management tool to optimise the management and delivery of ecosystem services by rural stakeholders.

The promoters of this project – Burrenbeo Trust and the Burren Programme - have an outstanding track record in delivering impactful environmental actions on agricultural land. They aim to consolidate and expand this impact across Clare (and Ireland) through ‘The Hare’s Corner’ project which will use public and private funding to implement small scale actions for nature – mini woodlands and ponds. By developing bespoke technological supports for stakeholders, they aim to roll out these measures more efficiently, capture their impact (location, cost, visual record etc) and share it, so that others are also inspired and enabled to undertake such works. They have a ready test bed of 300 clients to serve as initial users to whom this will be immediately directed.

Benefits include:

• Simultaneously encouraging the use of technology and environmental stewardship in a user-friendly way.
• Effective data capture/ analysis through aggregating information from many small environmental actions.
• A proof-of-concept initiative with potential for apps which will be scalable and portable.
• Developing digital skills among a range of users (project team, farmers, community groups, farm advisors etc).

Project: Remote Printing

Stream: Scaling

Funding awarded: €29,600

Printing is a core service offered by Cork County Council Library which prior to 2018 was only available from library pcs. The introduction of remote printing offers users flexibility to print from their own devices anywhere and at any time, with print jobs held on the system for 48 hours. This convenience is particularly beneficial to students and remote workers and has proved critical during COVID-19 with the option to print from library pcs being unavailable. Remote printing has allowed them to continue to offer a print solution while lockdown prevented users accessing the library PC’s. Since re-opening in May, 723 users have printed 6,254 pages in the 13 branches with remote printing.

Costs and IT infrastructure deficits led to the exclusion of smaller branches, the Islands, and the Mobile Libraries when introducing this innovative service, focusing instead on medium and larger scale branches. This created a clear digital divide for users of the service in rural locations. Broadband upgrades and new Mobile Library Units mean it’s now possible to address this issue. However, this will require costly software and hardware upgrades to ensure an equitable service across all locations.

Providing remote printing universally across all service points is essential to ensure users of the service will not be digitally disadvantaged by their rural isolation and will reduce the distances they have to travel.

Project: Climate Change Recording

Stream: Innovation

Funding awarded: €12,800

This project seeks to develop a digital solution to support the collection of oral and visual accounts of climate changes and impacts at a local level. It aims to collect information, stories and images of climate change observed and experienced by the older generation.

The initial focus is on providing the older generation with an opportunity and facility to share their experience of climate change in their locality. In addition, it is envisaged that members of the Public Participation Network and Youth Council will promote the digital solution, assisting the older generation in recording their stories, if needed, and ultimately starting the conversation of climate change in their local area.

The information collected from this project will assist in delivering actions identified in the Donegal Climate Adaptation Strategy. It will provide a historical record of local impacts, and establish a database that can be used to measure future impacts, address behavioural changes and engage all members of local communities in the climate conversation and solutions.

Project: Digital Dissemination

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €8,000

A Digital Community / Tourist Notice board with rolling news and editorial items for locals’ tourists and new home makers in our community which is to be situated at the community I Hub, located in the heart of the village of Milltown. The building is accessible 24 hours per day 7 days per week for users. The facility is awaiting the roll out of the Atlantic Economic Corridor (AEC) online booking portal linking over 180 such remote hubs across the western seaboard of Ireland with a target of 400 locations. The Blue I Hub at Milltown is strategically placed on the M17/ N17 corridor with pre COVID 19 vehicle numbers of 14,000 per-day, and acts as the main north south arterial transport along the western seaboard.

The facility has 22 car park spaces and will operate as community and open access Broadband Connection Point (BCP) for commercial, recreational and private users as a Wi-Fi hot spot along the western seaboard corridor. It is supported by a five-day week existing administrating base located in the nearby Milltown community centre. It has a full office suite; nominal charges are levied for services such as printing scanning and Typing. It is envisaged to have the facility equipped to facilitate online trading activities and other social community enterprises by the end of 2021 such as youth café, “Made in Milltown” and small artisan craft fair producers’ open public access 24 hours a day and 7 days a week complete with centralised booking system through the AEC portal and local access and egress though fob and touch sensitive keypads. The digital notice board, weekly digital newsletter, cultural/ artistic/ heritage and rolling news bulletin will add to the seven-pillar request that form the basis of this fund allocation.

Project: Smart Beaches

Stream: Scaling

Funding Awarded: €200,000

Scaling-out the infrastructure & services from the 2021 Atlantic Economic Corridor funded pilot at Inch Beach to multiple beaches in Kerry & other public attractions.

Further innovating:

• Smart Sensor functionality to include Water Quality monitoring, Lifebuoy & asset alarms
• Development of Digital Signage / Kiosks at each site.
• Integration with websites and Apps like discoverkerry and the Atlantic Discovery App and the EPA’s beaches.ie

The project support the realisation of three cross-cutting themes:

• ‘Enhanced Visitor Experience’
• ‘Transition to Low Carbon Economy’ and
• ‘Accessibility for All’.

Project: Smart Park Kerry

Stream: Scaling

Funding Awarded: €76,800

In 2021 Kerry County Council has developed a Smart Beaches pilot project at Inch Beach. Part of the project scope is to deliver disabled Bay parking sensors (using IoT- Internet of Things) to provide the Local Authority and public with live information on their status (free / busy).

Cellnex is the project partner for this element and they are developing a national Low-power wide-area network (LoRaWAN) IoT Gateway which would permit the scaling out of this project within Kerry and beyond. While the data is available in their SmartBrain system, the aim is to publish it in a new easy-to-use Disabled Parking application.

Project: Atlantic Discover Platform

Stream: Scaling

Funding Awarded: €200,000

• To provide a platform for potential visitors to get quality visitor information to help them decide to visit Kerry / the SW / the Atlantic Seaboard
• To provide an enhanced Digital Visitor Experience when they get here
• To explore how to layer new technologies on to the platform to allow new Visitor Experiences / Attractions be quickly digitised into quality apps and sites.

This is about having all the functionality found on existing sites such as:

wildatlanticway

discoverkerry

newzealand

It will add capability to enhance and digitise the experience.

The platform goal is to allow all service providers - no matter how peripheral or small the operation is, to provide an authentic brand experience that will increase awareness, direct bookings and physical visits. All service providers will benefit from technologies which would not otherwise be possible or affordable.

It is building on the experience of the 2018 Digital Innovation Programme Atlantic Discovery App and other projects which demonstrated a value in Community and tourism micro business interests being able to provide app content and derive benefits.

Project: RAPIDS

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €67,560

The aim of the project is to develop technology to improve a way to identify potholes and road surface quality on Limerick’s roads,

• Proactively identifying potholes earlier
• Reducing road maintenance costs
• Lowering the carbon footprint of roads maintenance with pinpoint location accuracy and
• Improving public safety and value for money.

The vehicle-mounted sensors will be used with machine learning and artificial intelligence processing at the edge, which can:

• Automatically detect and classify potholes and other road damage
• Provide an accurate location for the damage to the road
• Report the occurrence for remediation
• Enable the data to be leveraged for other purposes

Data protection and privacy safeguards will be built into the system to satisfy the requirements for processing personal data in accordance with principles stated in Article 5 GDPR. Areas that are not relevant to the road damage detection, as well as inadvertent images of people and vehicle registration plates will be automatically masked or scrambled in real time before storing or transmitting the captured images.

The primary use cases will be:

• Automated pothole identification and remediation leveraging Limerick City and County Council’s existing fleet (on a pilot basis)
• Input into Pavement Surface Condition Index surveys

Project: Longford Text Alert

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €14,000

This is a smartphone app development project that unifies community communications across Co. Longford for a variety of community-led initiatives such as community text alert including crime, active age, TidyTowns, BCP initiatives and more. App screens will also provide additional Longford information through interactive maps and live weather warnings.

There are numerous “Text Alert” initiatives across Co. Longford, and the aim of the project is to work with the community text alert groups, An Garda Siochana, Joint Policing Committee in order to deliver alerts through the smartphone app thus reducing the cost of SMS for the local community text alert group.

By linking in with local text alert groups, it also allows communities to expand their array of local communications to other initiatives such as TidyTown groups, active age groups, BCP initiatives (digital skills) and more.

This system will also support non-liners (people who dont have broadband and are not online) who have a mobile phone as they will be able to receive a text message.

An awareness campaign will be held in our BCP’s firstly to promote and show citizens how to sign up for the new system and if they have a smart phone show them how to download the app and highlight to them other ways they could use their device to benefit from digital engagement. This will also create an opportunity for us to introduce and explain what’s possible in their local BCP.

A key part of the app communication service is to provide regular updates about BCP initiatives in Co. Longford.

Project: Air Quality Monitoring

Stream: Scaling

Funding Awarded: €163,518

• To create a LoRaWAN network covering the town of Trim in County Meath.
• To configure and install 9 air quality sensors at suitable locations in the town.
• To collect the data from the sensors in a database and build up a historic baseline of air quality measurements.
• To present the data in a dashboard on the council website for the public.
• To make the air quality data available to other interested parties (e.g. university researchers).

The purpose of this project is to provide a baseline of air quality in Trim, with the aim of gathering information to inform the provision of sustainable solutions to improve air quality within Trim and informing the community. This project also ties in with Trim Decarbonisation Zone and the European URBACT project Trim is involved in to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In order to expand on previous projects, the aim is to overlay additional meteorological data sets such as wind direction and mechanical and pedestrian traffic to better understand the air quality data.

Project: Outdoor Inflatable Screens

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €1,500

Monaghan County Council, including the library section, the community section and others will trial inflatable outdoor screens to see how effective they are. The screens will also be made available for use by other organisations including Clones Film Society, Foróige, primary schools event and organisations within the PPN network. The plan is to trial the screens as part of Cavan-Monaghan Science Festival in October, allowing them to run certain activities in an outdoor setting.

Project: Sensory Gardens

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €12,000

This is an educational and environmental project and a proposal which focuses on diversity and inclusion. A singer and an entertainer, Big Tom McBride was one of the best known Country and Western artists in County Monaghan before his death in 2018. A Big Tom memorial garden was designed by Michael Carroll. This work was completed, planted and opened in June.

The location of the garden is one of the sites which received WiFi under the Wifi4EU scheme. With this 2nd phase of the project, technology will be introduced into the garden, with soil sensors and water sensors, sensors to count the number of visitors into the garden and a Big Tom App detailing the different phases of his life.

Information and audio segments will be delivered using QR codes and beacons to reduce the number of large boards within the garden space.

Project: Water Flow/Level Recording

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €14,268

‘e-denderry’ is an IoT – Internet of Things | LoRaWAN Connectivity | Smart Town Technology project between Offaly County Council and Cellnex. It has been successful in translating opportunities of IoT for rural town management into tangible and practical case studies demonstrating benefits, costs savings and opportunities for service improvements using embedded device connection functionality in relevant IoT sensor sets.

Learnings from e-denderry will be used to build a Programme Logic Controller and integrate this into a custom Printed Circuit Board with input connectivity from a range of IoT sensors to measure parameters where possible in the two topics below, There will be output transmission to the LoRa network to remit the information to a collection and collation format (either OPW who already collate some level information by a remote unit but utilising GPS/GPRS for transmission), or SmartBrain) probably via an Application Programming Interface. In this case the identified opportunity is to work with Meath County Council, the Local Authorities Water Programmes Office, the OPW and the EPA with a view to use of the services for the project title in two areas in watercourse management relating to:

• Flow / levels (flood management) and
• Water quality for environmental safety.

Project:Edenderry IOT

Stream: Innovation

Funding Awarded: €35,021

‘e-denderry’ is an IoT – Internet of Things | LoRaWAN Connectivity | Smart Town Technology project between Offaly County Council and Cellnex. It has been successful in translating opportunities of IoT for rural town management into tangible and practical case studies demonstrating benefits, costs savings and opportunities for service improvements using embedded device connection functionality in relevant IoT sensor sets.

The project has had support from some public agencies and has been well received by other public agencies since launch. There have been several opportunities identified as to how this project might move forward, with funding to commission a feasibility report to analyse outputs to date; see what outcomes can be extracted from those; and look in depth at the wide range of opportunities that are available.

Project: Defibrillators Locator App

Stream: Innovation

Funding awarded: €17,400

This project will see a county-wide app developed that will map the locations of defibrillators. While this has been attempted several times by different bodies, none appear to have been able to collate all of the information and coordinate all of the owners and organisations involved. Currently, GAA clubs, CFR groups, retail premises, doctors’ surgeries, emergency services, TidyTowns groups and a multitude of others make defibrillators available to the public. This will be the first time a single public body, in this case Roscommon County Council, has stepped forward to take the lead.

The app will have a members-only area for those that have a defibrillator available for public use. The members’ area will contain information on care / maintenance of defibrillators, updates on new CPR rules and practices and general information useful to CPR and First Aid practitioners.

This project has a very strong chance of success and could become the best-practice solution nationwide. The potential of this project not just to save lives, but to encourage cross-organisational cooperation is significant.

Project: Ring Buoy Theft Prevention

Stream: Scaling

Funding awarded: €120,000

In 2019, Dublin City Council secured €15k from the Public Sector Innovation Fund and consultancy support from European Assistance for Innovative Procurement to source innovative low-cost solutions to ring buoy theft.

The problem was identified during community engagement workshops delivered in Dublin’s Docklands. Investigation uncovered hundreds go missing / are stolen across Ireland every year.

Currently, missing / stolen ring buoys are detected by manual inspections. Recording, documenting and ordering necessary replacements can leave ring buoys missing for weeks at a time - an obvious risk to life-saving ability.

From initial engagement with the market to source solutions, Dublin has now developed a first in Ireland procurement methodology (pilot and buy framework). Four Irish companies were selected and their solutions are being trialled across 60 Dublin locations using low-powered connected sensors, supported by Water Safety Ireland and water safety development officers.

DIP funding will help scale solutions in 9 local authorities. The budget will help purchasing / deployment for 12 months, helping save lives. Participating Local Authorities will use the procurement framework for rapid deployment supported by Water Safety Ireland, Sligo County Council and Smart Dublin.

Project: Shared Telecoms Infrastructure

Stream: Innovation

Funding awarded: €48,000

In 2019 a Pilot Project was carried out in order to identify and assess areas within the Lough area of County Tipperary - where poor mobile coverage exists and to scope for new solutions which will positively impact mobile coverage for the local community and businesses. Following an extensive test - a set of Coverage maps were produced which indicated extensive area(s) of poor quantitative performance of voice services and data performance for each of the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

One particular solution under consideration by the Local Authority required the identification of locations on the roads network, or in land owned by the local authority adjacent to the roads network, as suitable for the deployment of Radio Sites.

The function of these sites is to provide locations for the installation of the telecommunication networks by MNOs as required to improve mobile coverage and data services to the area surrounding the site and the public road. The safety of road users, and of those carrying out site visits is paramount when considering the suitability of these individual sites. A key determinant in any decision is to ascertain that no adverse impact on road user safety would arise, no restrictions on the driver’s visibility, no obstruction of footpaths or cycle-paths would be caused, etc.

In order to progress the next stage of this pilot project and identify solutions to Mobile Phone and Mobile data coverage deficit area(s) - this project will carry out research and develop an suitable economic solution to pilot the build of two telecommunications physical infrastructures in the area at the side of the public road. Thereafter this shared telecommunications physical infrastructure will be offered to the telecommunication industry to install a Radio Network.

Project: Smart Skills for Farming Communities

Stream: Innovation

Funding awarded: €24,000

Smart Agriculture IoT based network solutions are increasingly being used across the Agricultural Sector, fuelling the demand for digital skills. Digital technologies hold the key for a smarter, more competitive and resource-efficient agricultural sector. Irish farmers already benefit from an array of digital solutions that can help their farms to become more sustainable and productive. However, the extent to which new technologies are taken up in the field is actually limited.

Barriers preventing a more widespread use of new technologies still exist. Among these, the lack of adequate digital knowledge and skills occupies a central place. A recent Irish Farmers Association (IFA) report noted that 60% of their members identify access to supports and training in their top three barriers to the uptake in digital technologies.

To fully harness the potential that is offered by digital solutions, farmers – and the advisers who work with them – need to know what digital tools are best suited to their business, and how to use them.

The purpose of this project is to support the implementation of a new Digital Skills Training Programme, with the support of the IFA and the Connected Communities – Broadband Connection Points, the Department of Rural and Community Development in the use of new digital technologies in Irish agriculture in rural County Tipperary and is based upon the Departments BCP Thematic programmes (Remote Working, Digital Skills and Education, Arts and Culture)

The IFA is Ireland’s largest farming representative organisation and they will be asked to participate and develop this Digital Skills Training Programme and noting their role in the provision of representation, support and advice to their Members on an individual basis.

This Programme will also support the production of a number of YouTube Training Videos’ on all aspects of Smart Agriculture IoT based Network solutions -which will initially be shown and launched in the BCPs.

Project: Asset Mapping

Stream: Innovation

Funding awarded: €52,600

Over the last four years there has been unprecedented levels of funding made available for towns and villages and community groups. The majority or this funding is administered through the local authority and the Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) structures. Over the last four years, taking LEADER and Rural Supports schemes only, there has been well in excess of €8m funding spread across the county. There has also been substantial funding secured under the Urban and Rural Regeneration Programmes, Healthy Ireland, etc.

This project proposes to:

• Geocode all assets that have been funded and create an overall “digital funding system” that records the details of all items funded, the funding source, groups that received the funding, photos of the items funded etc.
• The mapping tool would create layers of data that could be looked at individually (i.e., funding by source/geographical area) or collectively show all the publicly funded assets in the county. There is also potential to add various other layers of data to the system.
• Provide BI dashboards for use by decision makers in the council.
• Create a database, utilised by the above, to store information on all funded projects.
• Combine datasets to be used as a reporting tool which can be used to monitor the effectiveness of public funding within the County
• Provide a public web portal to improve communications on funded grants to the public and also promote and acknowledge central government / EU funding programmes

Project: Town of Things

Stream: Innovation

Funding awarded: €73,200

The Town of Things (ToT) is a public realm sensing project comprising a network of interactive, modular sensor nodes that will be installed in locations throughout Gorey to collect real-time open data on the town’s environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use. The aim of the project is to design, deploy, and validate an urban data platform composed of sensors, actuators, monitors, and communication facilities to offer useful information to citizens in Gorey, optimise the delivery of public services, and catalyse greater use of open data for innovation in Wexford.

Three significant public-facing elements of the project will be

• The deployment of an onstreet engagement platform to add a playful layer to the public realm and to encourage citizens to interact with everyday street objects
• The provision of real-time data about Gorey through a new website and service
• The sharing of open data with researchers and the public to encourage citizens to use this data for innovation. Wexford County Council and the Irish Institute of Digital Business at DCU will undertake a series of research and outreach projects to support the project including formative and summative evaluations, student workshops, hackathons and other promotional events.