Fingal County Council Launches Smart Balbriggan Partnership with CONNECT Centre
Recognising the potential of Balbriggan as a Smart Technology testbed, CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks hosted at Trinity College Dublin, with Fingal County Council have launched ‘Smart Balbriggan'.
Recognising the potential of Balbriggan as a Smart Technology testbed, CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks hosted at Trinity College Dublin, with Fingal County Council (FCC) have launched ‘Smart Balbriggan'.
As one of the youngest towns in Ireland with an average age of 30, combined with the fact that 28% of residents are born outside of Ireland, Smart Balbriggan provides unique opportunities for Balbriggan to innovate with diversity and youth at the forefront of the town's evolution.
Professor Dan Kilper, CONNECT Director and Professor of Future Communication Networks in the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, said:
“At CONNECT, we are designing community responsive networks to meet the needs of a diverse range of stakeholders. This partnership with Fingal County Council in the Smart Balbriggan project brings this area of research and innovation beyond the urban environment into the rural community.”
With a focus on collaboration and a diverse range of partners, the Smart Balbriggan team brings the citizens, the city, the innovators, and the universities together to solve the unique challenges in the Balbriggan ecosystem. They also facilitate the deployment of prototypes of these solutions, ensuring that solutions emerge from citizen experience, are understood through CONNECT research, developed with innovators, and deployed by Fingal County Council.
“We are delighted to be partnering with CONNECT, a cutting edge SFI research centre, building upon our Fingal Digital Strategy along with engaging with the community in Smart Town development,” said Aishling Hyland, Digital Programme Officer of Fingal County Council.
Smart Balbriggan unites SME’s, residents, community groups and local government officials who are facing challenges, with organisations who believe they can solve these challenges to improve the lives of the local population. The Smart Balbriggan initiative connects these groups so that they can come up with innovative solutions, test them and improve them collaboratively.
“One of the most important aspects to developing a smart place is to work together across imaginary boundaries,” said Eamonn Donlyn, Smart Balbriggan Programme Manager. “The majority of solutions revolve around how we transport ourselves and the use of resources such as energy, food and water, which need to be designed at a local level.”
Smart Balbriggan showcases what can happen when a unique town develops a level of engagement between the community and public bodies that is collaborative, to help make a significant jump in the quality of life for all the people of the area.
About Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin, founded in 1592 is Ireland’s oldest university and today has a vibrant community of 20,000 students and 3,500 staff. Cutting edge research, technology and innovation places the university at the forefront of higher education in Ireland and globally. It encompasses all major academic fields and is committed to world-class teaching and research across the range of disciplines in the arts and humanities, business, law, engineering, science, social and health sciences. Trinity is ranked 1st in Ireland and in the top 100 world universities by the QS World University Rankings.
About CONNECT
CONNECT is the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks consisting of over 300 researchers across 10 Higher Education Institutions across Ireland. CONNECT works with 40 industry partners from multinationals to SMEs to start ups in the areas of 6G, smart cities, quantum, and satellite communications.