Smart Dublin and Enterprise Ireland launch €100k Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Challenge

As part of the Smart Dublin initiative, the four Dublin local authorities and Enterprise Ireland launched the €100k Small Business Innovation Research Challenge (SBIR) in City Hall today. In line with a push towards a healthier, more liveable city, Dublin is seeking smart, innovative and low cost solutions to increase the number of people cycling in Dublin.

The SBIR challenge is a joint initiative between Smart Dublin and Enterprise Ireland and is open for applications from today 8th March until 3rd May 2016. Successful applicants will be selected by an open competition process run in two phases. The competition is open to any organisation, developers of ICT and software solution providers, universities and service providers.

Sarah Scannell, recently appointed ?Cycling and Walking Promotion Officer, Dublin City Council, said: “We want to increase cycling in Dublin, both across the Dublin Region and in the City Centre with a target for a quarter of all trips in the city centre to be taken by bike. Achieving this objective will require major investment in cycling infrastructure, increased promotion of cycling as an option, supportive policy decision making, and a step change in attitudes to cycling in our city. There are a number of short term improvements possible through the application of smart, low cost innovative technologies. The SBIR challenge will allow us to provide seed funding for companies and individuals to develop innovative and data driven proposals to accomplish this goal.”

The SBIR challenge is seeking proposals which advance the use of existing cycling data; create new cycling data to enhance understanding of cycling issues; and develop methods to improve cycling safety and reduce bicycle theft in the city.

Kevin Sherry, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland, said: “A key priority for Enterprise Ireland is to increase the level of innovation in businesses and the commercialisation of research in Ireland. We are delighted to support the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Challenge which will encourage the development of new and innovative solutions to increase the level of journeys taken by bicycle in Dublin and I would encourage entrepreneurs, developers and researchers who have solutions in this space to take up the challenge and enter the competition.”

David Timoney, Dublin Cycling Campaign, said: “Dublin Cycling is supporting the SBIR challenge and encourages all companies with smart ideas to get involved in this competition. We would like to see innovative solutions developed that gather better cycle behaviour data which will allow for evidenced based decisions on cycling infrastructure. Hopefully these solutions can tackle the various barriers to increased cycling including bike security, inadequate private and public bike parking, perception of bad weather and perception of safety.”

Interested parties can apply on SmartDublin.ie. The closing date is the 3rd May 2016. An information session will be held on the 23rd March in Enterprise Ireland from 10 -12am. Applicants will be required to demonstrate that their proposed solution can achieve the required technical performance, cost (capital and operating), scalability, ease of use and good customer experience amongst other aspects.

Smart Dublin is an initiative of the four Dublin Local Authorities to engage with smart technology providers, researchers and citizens to solve city challenges and improve city life. It aims to position Dublin as a world leader in the development of new urban solutions, using open data, and with the city region as a test bed.

At the launch in City Hall, a number of other flagship Smart Dublin projects were showcased including: Croke Park Smart Stadium; Dublinked Open Data; Dublin Dashboard; Intel/DCC Flood Management IoT demonstrator; CiviQ – open engagement platform; Kingspan low cost river level sensing trial; and Sonitus Sound Monitoring Dublin network.

To find out more about these projects, please visit www.SmartDublin.ie. The tender is available here: http://bit.ly/1Yr6N2L