Application form
Call: HORIZON-EIC-2023-ICAPITAL-PRIZE-02 ( The European Capital of Innovation Awards (iCapital) ) Topic: HORIZON-EIC-2023-ICAPITAL-PRIZE-02-2 Type of Action: HORIZON-RPr Proposal number: 101145688 Proposal acronym: Icapital Type of Model Grant Agreement: HORIZON Prize
Table of contents
Section
Title
Action
1
General information
2
Participating organisations & contacts
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Proposal ID 101145688 Acronym Icapital
1 - General information
Field(s) marked * are mandatory to fill.
Topic HORIZON-EIC-2023-ICAPITAL-PRIZE-02-2
Type of Action HORIZON-RPr
Call HORIZON-EIC-2023-ICAPITAL-PRIZE-02
Type of Model Grant AgreementHORIZON-PR
Acronym Icapital
Proposal title Rising Innovative City 2023 - Cork City Application
Note that for technical reasons, the following characters are not accepted in the Proposal Title and will be removed: < > " &
Innovation, Climate Action, Digitization, Research, Academia, Public, Industry.
Free keywords
Abstract Cork City is Ireland's second largest city home to a population of 222,333 people (2022). Cork City is Ireland’s second largest economic engine and an emerging national counterbalance to Dublin, offering a diverse economic base with strong concentrations of activity present in ICT, Life Sciences, International Traded Services, Business Services, Education, Health, Retail, Cybersecurity and Nanotechnology. The wider city region also plays host to an internationally significant pharma and bio-pharma sector plus strong energy, maritime and agri-food clusters. As well as being the main service centre for the Southern Region, Cork is home to significant national level health, educational and cultural institutions Cork City Council is the local governing body responsible for delivering a broad range of services in relation to roads; traffic; planning; housing; economic and community development; environment, recreation and amenity services; fire services and maintaining the register of electors. Cork City Council is managed and governed by two separate but inter linked arms; the Executive and the Elected Members. The Executive are responsible for the delivery of the above mentioned services while the Elected Members (Councillors) of which there are 31 and chaired by the Lord Mayor have reserved functions including making the council budget and City Development Plan. Cork City's Rising Innovative City 2023 application seeks to show the breadth of Cork City's innovative eco-system. An eco-system which links the citizens, the public sector, academia and industry together to solve key issues and create a better quality of life for it's citizens. Remaining characters 324
Has this proposal (or a very similar one) been submitted in the past 2 years in response to a call for proposals under any EU programme, including the current call?
No
Yes
Please give the proposal reference or contract number.
101102138
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Application form
Proposal ID 101145688 Acronym Icapital
Declarations
Field(s) marked * are mandatory to fill.
1) We declare to have the explicit consent of all applicants on their participation and on the content of this proposal. *
2) We confirm that the information contained in this proposal is correct and complete and that none of the project activities have started before the proposal was submitted (unless explicitly authorised in the call conditions).
3) We declare:
- to be fully compliant with the eligibility criteria set out in the call - not to be subject to any exclusion grounds under the EU Financial Regulation 2018/1046 - to have the financial and operational capacity to carry out the proposed project. 4) We acknowledge that all communication will be made through the Funding & Tenders Portal electronic exchange system and that access and use of this system is subject to the Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions. 5) We have read, understood and accepted the Funding & Tenders Portal Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement that set out the conditions of use of the Portal and the scope, purposes, retention periods, etc. for the processing of personal data of all data subjects whose data we communicate for the purpose of the application, evaluation, award and subsequent management of our grant, prizes and contracts (including financial transactions and audits). The coordinator is only responsible for the information relating to their own organisation. Each applicant remains responsible for the information declared for
their organisation. If the proposal is retained for EU funding, they will all be required to sign a declaration of honour. False statements or incorrect information may lead to administrative sanctions under the EU Financial Regulation.
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Application form
Proposal ID 101145688 Acronym Icapital
2 - Participants
List of participating organisations
# Participating Organisation Legal Name
Country
Role
Action
1 CORK CITY COUNCIL
Ireland
Coordinator
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Application form Proposal ID 101145688 Acronym Icapital
Short name CORK CITY COUNCIL Organisation data
PIC 986290763
Legal name CORK CITY COUNCIL
Short name: CORK CITY COUNCIL
Address
Street CITY HALL
Town CORK
Postcode T12 T997
Country Ireland
Webpage www.corkcity.ie
Specific Legal Statuses
Legal person ..........................................................
yes
Public body ............................................................
yes
Non-profit ...............................................................
yes
International organisation ................................
no
Secondary or Higher education establishment ......
no
Research organisation ........................................
no
SME Data Based on the below details from the Participant Registry the organisation is not an SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise) for the call. SME self-declared status...................................... 01/01/1900 - no SME self-assessment ............................................ unknown SME validation sme .............................................. unknown
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Application form Proposal ID 101145688 Acronym Icapital
Short name CORK CITY COUNCIL
Departments carrying out the proposed work
Department 1
not applicable
Department name Strategic & Economic Development
Same as proposing organisation's address
Street
City Hall, Anglesea Street, Cork City
Town
Cork City
Postcode
T12 T997
Country
Ireland
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Application form Proposal ID 101145688 Acronym Icapital
Short name CORK CITY COUNCIL
Main contact person The name and e-mail of contact persons are read-only in the administrative form, only additional details can be edited here. To give access rights and basic contact details of contact persons, please go back to step - Manage your related parties of the submission wizard and save the changes.
Title Mr
Gender
Woman Man Non Binary
Last name Lotty
First name Sean
E-Mail sean_lotty@corkcity.ie
Position in org. Enterprise Executive
Same as organisation name
Department Strategic & Economic Development
Same as proposing organisation's address
Street City Hall, Anglesea Street, Cork City
Post code T12 T997
Town Cork City
Country Ireland
Website www.corkcity.ie
Phone
(021) 496 1828
+xxx xxxxxxxxx
Phone 2
Other contact persons
First Name
Last Name
Phone
+xxx xxxxxxxxx
Claire
Davis
claire_davis@corkcity.ie
+xxx xxxxxxxxx
Niall
O'Keeffe
niall_okeeffe@corkcity.ie
+xxx xxxxxxxxx
Seamus
Coghlan
seamus_coghlan@corkcity.ie
+xxx xxxxxxxxx
Ronan
Gingles
ronan_gingles@corkcity.ie
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Horizon Europe Application Form
Technical Description (Part B)
The European Capital of Innovation Awards 2023
Version 1.0 08 March 2023
HORIZON-EIC-2023-iCapitalPrize - The European Capital of Innovation Awards
EU Prizes: Application form (prizes) The European Capital of Innovation Awards: V1.0 – 08.03.2023
IMPORTANT NOTICE
What is the application form?
The application form is the template for EU prize applications. It must be submitted via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal before the call deadline.
The form consists of 2 parts:
• Part A contains structured administrative information • Part B is a narrative technical description of the application.
Part A is generated by the IT system. It is based on the information which you enter into the Portal Submission System screens.
Part B needs to be uploaded as PDF (+ annex) in the Submission System. The templates to use are available there.
How to prepare and submit it?
The application form must be prepared by the city and submitted by a representative. Once submitted, you will receive a confirmation.
Character and page limits :
page limit: 30 pages.
•
• Annex: the only mandatory annex required is the city Mayor’s (or the equivalent highest political representative) endorsement. This document should be uploaded in the system separately from Part B. (max 2 pages)
Minimum font size — Arial 9 points
•
page size: A4
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• margins (top, bottom, left and right): at least 15 mm (not including headers & footers).
Please abide by the formatting rules. They are not a target! Keep your text as concise as possible. Do not use hyperlinks to show information that is an essential part of your project.
If you attempt to upload an application that exceeds the specified limit, you will receive an automatic warning asking you to shorten and re-upload your application. After you have submitted it, any excess pages will be made invisible and thus disregarded by the evaluators. Please do NOT delete any instructions in the document. The overall page-limit has been raised to ensure equal treatment of all applicants. Please do NOT modify this template. You must use it without altering its format (i.e., Do not include the logo of your city in the header nor as a footnote).
Before submitting your application, please ensure that the correct prize category is selected.
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APPLICATION FORM (PART B)
COVER PAGE
Part B of the Application Form must be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, and then assembled and re-uploaded as PDF in the system.
Note: Please take due account of the call conditions published on the Portal. Pay particular attention to the award criteria; they explain how the application will be evaluated.
PROJECT 1
Project name:
[ HORIZON-EIC-2023-ICAPITAL-PRIZE-02 ]
Project acronym:
[ICapital]
Coordinator contact:
[Sean Lotty], [Cork City Council]
Prize category:
[European Rising Innovative City]
City population (include reference year)
222,333 (2022)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPLICATION FORM (PART B) .........................................................................................................................................2 COVER PAGE .................................................................................................................................................................2 1. SUMMARY...................................................................................................................................................................2 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION ..........................................................................................................................................3 3. OTHER ......................................................................................................................................................................28 3.1 Ethics .................................................................................................................................................................. 28 3.2 Security ............................................................................................................................................................... 28 4. DECLARATIONS .......................................................................................................................................................28 ANNEXES .......................................................................................................................................................................... 29
1. SUMMARY
Application summary
See Proposal Abstract (Part A).
1 For ease of reference and consistency on the Funding & Tenders Portal, the terms ‘ call ’ , ‘ project ’ , ‘ proposal ’ , ‘ coordinator ’ or ‘ beneficiary ’ (or other project-related acronyms like COO or BEN ) are used as equivalent to ‘contest’, ‘application’ or ‘ contestants/applicants ’ .
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2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Detailed description of the application
The texts should provide a clear overview of your city's excellence in relation to the objectives of the prize. Describe the application in detail, specifically addressing each of the award criteria set out in the Rules of Contest (see also below) Please, bear in mind there is no character limitation per box (criterion) but remember the overall limit of 30 pages. Please follow the instructions indicated above.
Award criterion 1, Experimenting – innovative concepts, processes, tools, and governance models proving the city's commitment to act as a test-bed for innovative practices, while ensuring the mainstreaming of these practices into the ordinary urban development process. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider answering these questions: Why are these initiatives and/or concepts perceived as new? In which sense are they different to others? What was the city’s role in these innovative concepts and/or models? What impact did they have in the city and ecosystem’ stakeholders?
INTRODUCTION: CORK’S CLIMATE MISSION
Cork is Ireland's second-largest and fastest-growing city. Cork City Council aims to provide an attractive, high-quality, resilient place in which to live, work, visit and do business. Cork City Council works under the strategic direction of a National Framework (2040) and a regional strategy along with the recently launched City Development plan 2022-2028. Our aim is to implement those strategies in a systematic manner, experimenting and trialing best practice and innovative models. Cork City Council is fully committed to the scaling and widespread rollout of initiatives and concepts which prove successful. Cork City Council recognises that undertaking extensive climate action must now be treated as the number one priority if those climate goals are to be fulfilled. Prioritisation of climate action will improve the quality of life for residents of the city and ensure that Cork City Council can play a role in addressing the most pressing global challenge of our time.
100 CLIMATE NEUTRAL AND SMART CITIES MISSION
I n April 2022, Cork City was selected to take part in the EU’s ‘Cities Mission’ initiative, becoming one of Europe’s 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities. T his initiative aims to significantly accelerate the delivery of the European Green Deal’s goal of becoming a ‘net zero’ continent by 2050. Cork’s participation, led by Cork City Council but drawing together a city -wide coalition of stakeholders, including academia, industry, community groups and citizens, will be framed by devising and delivering a new model of local multi- level governance, the ‘Climate City Contract’ due to be finalized in 2024. The Climate City Contract will comprise of an Action Plan and associated investment strategy which will facilitate and future- proof Cork’s growth as a inclusive, sustainable, compact, healthy, liveable and attractive city – all co-benefits of consolidated climate action. In placing Cork towards the forefront of Eu rope’s most sustainably minded cities, the Mission will open up further valuable opportunities over the coming years. These will provide specific peer-to-peer connections and collaborations with other cities around issues of shared concern. As a Mission City, Cork will serve as a testbed for piloting specific new approaches and innovations to help us achieve our climate ambitions. This will in turn allow Cork to serve as an exemplar for other cities, across Ireland and Europe, to follow. In laying the groundwork towards the development of the Contract, work to date has centred on a combination of: • D eveloping a baseline analysis of Cork’s current emissions across the key emission domains of Housing, Industry, Public Services, Road transport, Commercial, Agriculture and Waste Handling and Treatment.
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Consolidating joint priority interests with local, national, and international stakeholders
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Preparing a climate risk assessment study.
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commissioning a large-scale household survey of attitudes and behaviors.
• Cork City Council organised a set of sectoral ‘Cork Climate Conversations’ to structure engagement with other public sector organisations, the business sector and community
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representatives (through the Public Participation Network). These events were developed in conjunction with University College Cork’s Civic En gagement Unit
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Engaged with schools and younger generations to ensure their voice is heard.
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Launch of a €840,000 Community Climate Action Fund.
Mission to ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters
• In November 2022, Cork became the first Atlantic City to sign the Charter of the Mission to ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’. In doing so Cork City Council pledges to play a meaningful local leadership role in this area. To support these efforts, a 10-point local Action Programme has been devised by which to embrace our natural water resources. This plan encompasses a series of commitments to deliver locally through a series of plans and pilot actions on Green and Blue Infrastructure (nature-based solutions); on safeguarding biodiversity; and on water quality and pollution, including through citizen science.
Key deliverables include:
•
Sensitive waterfront heritage conservation.
• The relocation of the port facility will create the regeneration space allowing Cork to grow as a more compact city. • Lee-to-Sea Greenway as a world-class walking, running, and cycling route amenity running through the city and along its harbour to the ocean. • In addition to the work to develop the Climate Contract as part of the Cities Mission Programme, Cork City Council has engaged in supporting activities which will help accelerate Cork City’s Climate Neutral Ambition
Cork City’s Air Quality Strategy
In August 2021 Cork City Council was the first local authority in Ireland to launch an Air Quality Strategy. This was a co-created strategy which was developed by Cork City Council in collaboration with residents, community groups, the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), University College Cork (UCC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Munster Technological University (MTU) and Healthy Cities, amongst other groups to develop and implement the strategy. The Air Quality Strategy sets out short, medium, and long-term initiatives to improve air quality in Cork City including proposing:
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A ‘last mile Electric Vehicle Delivery’ service for HGV (heavy goods vehicles) in the city.
•
The creation of Low Emission Zones /Clean Air Zones
• The increase of tree cover in the city includes the development and enhancement of ecological corridors, the securing of wetland areas, the increasing the number of pocket parks and parklets and the expansion of areas to be used to offset carbon levels. • By the end of 2023 1,500 trees will be planted, an increase of 20%. Cork City Council plans to increase this number year on year.
Air Quality Monitoring System
At the core of Cork City Council’s Air Quality Strategy is the existence of an air quality monitoring system. This system includes a network of low-cost air quality sensors that measures PM 2.5. This real time air quality data can help Cork City Council and others to make data-based decisions and monitor the impact of these decisions on air quality across the city. This is the first low-cost air quality network of its kind in Ireland and was developed in partnership with the Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry at University College Cork (UCC). The sensor data is validated against UCC’s air quality monitoring station to ensure that the data is robust. The air quality data is shared with citizens through an open data air quality dashboard.
CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
Cork City Council is currently developing a Local Authority Climate Action Plan to meet and exceed national emission reduction targets and develop resilience to the impacts of Climate Change. This Climate action plan will build on the 2019 Cork City Council Cork City Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. The Climate Change Adaptation Strategy consisted of 66 actions across different areas of climate change. As part of the strategy, Cork City Council was the first local authority in Ireland to establish a climate action committee. Through this strategy, many innovative initiatives were introduced, most notably the
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retrofitting of public housing stock and the introduction of an Electric Vehicle Fleet for Cork City Council Staff.
Retrofitting of Housing Stock
As part of the Climate Adaptation Strategy Cork City Council’s Housing Department is implementing several smart retrofitting projects across a portion of its 10,500 social houses. These projects aim to explore how retrofitting and the application of smart technologies can reduce carbon emissions, improve the quality of older homes, and reduce the incidence of fuel poverty. Over half of Cork City Council’s social houses were built before 1970, with some dating back to 1886. The retrofitting requirements to ensure these homes remain high-quality places to live for tenants and meet national energy efficiency goals are significant. Cork City Council is exploring combining deep energy retrofits and smart energy technologies to meet these targets. Implementation is ongoing to deliver on the current 25% target for Cork City’s public housing stock to achieve the near Zero Energy Building (nZEB) standard (as defined by national Building Regulations part L) by 2030. This would retrofit approximately 2750 units with all residual housing stock units to follow by 2050. Work is currently underway on installing 3,000 heat pumps in public housing by 2030. Cork City Council is currently involved in several national and international projects to trial and tests smart solutions in housing retrofitting including 3 projects that involve smart energy, measuring, monitoring, and reporting systems, smart energy storage, and renewables. The first project, funded by the Department of Housing, Southern Regional Assembly and Cork City Council has installed smart energy, measuring, monitoring, and reporting (EMMER) systems in 8 apartments located on the south side of the city. EMMR projects help the housing department to understand the impact of retrofitting activities across several parameters including energy efficiency and carbon reduction and can also help in designing predictive maintenance plans to keep the houses at their optimal efficiency. Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure before and after retrofitting include both internal KPIs such as temperature, C02, heat pump usage, energy, and gas consumption and external KPIs such as external temperature, pressure, rainfall, and solar radiation, wind speed and direction. These KPIs are measured using a variety of tools including sensors, data loggers and digital remote monitoring and recording systems. This project aims to help validate the value and impact of deep retrofit schemes which are being rolled out and will also enable Cork City Council to accurately measure the carbon reduction of these works.
EU Project - MiniStor
Cork City Council’s Housing Department has engaged in many collaborative European -funded projects including MiniStor. MiniStor, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme aims to design and produce a novel compact integrated thermal storage system to achieve sustainable heating, cooling and electricity storage and reduce the carbon footprint of the home. ‘MiniStor’ is an innovative system for the sustainable production and storage of heating, cooling, and electricity. It is solar-driven and utilizes a combination of thermochemical (TCM) and phase change materials (PCM) for thermal energy storage (TES). This configuration enables the achievement of considerably higher energy storage density compared to competitive TES systems, i.e., almost 10 times the energy density of water, which is usually used in heat storage systems. Also, a lithium-ion battery is used for storing electrical energy. As part of this project, Cork City Council will install an innovative home energy management system, lithium- ion battery and the ‘MiniStor’ innovative solar thermal system in a pre -1970s social house in the western part of the city. Throughout the demonstration phase, a series of performance KPIs will be measured including energy efficiency, storage capacity, environmental conditions, etc. The system will be monitored for at least two heating and two cooling seasons (winter and summer). Experience gained during the first year of operation will be used to gather feedback for fine-tuning the system. There is an expected 40% energy reduction predicted for this house following this project. The home energy management system allows users to get information about the performance of their house and enables the user to control the energy usage in the house.
EU Project - REDWoLF
Cork City Council is also a partner in The RED WoLF project (Rethink Electricity Distribution Without Load Following) funded by the EU programme Interreg North-West Europe. The three-year RED WoLF project will increase renewables usage and reduce carbon emissions for homes with photovoltaic solar
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panels. Cork City Council has installed photovoltaic cells and hybrid storage systems which merge batteries and storage heaters in 10 houses in two socially disadvantaged areas of the city. The heaters will provide heat on demand and the batteries will store output from the solar panels as well as low- carbon energy (wind/solar) drawn from the national grid at times of low demand. This will be enabled using new ‘smart’ technology through which the house's hybrid storage systems will be able to communicate with the grid and will remove the mismatch between generation and usage. A home control system automatically makes decisions on storage based on local energy usage, the price of electricity, weather forecasts and the grid’s current CO2 intensity. The purpose of the p roject is to see how these components interact to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of this project, it is predicted that up to 20 tons of CO2 will be removed from the atmosphere in Cork city each year. The results and impact of these innovative projects are assessed following implementation and best practice learnings are integrated into the wider retrofitting program and shared with members of the public through the Home Energy Upgrade Office.
Home Energy Upgrade Office
The Home Energy Upgrade Office, situated in Cork City Centre, offers members of the public information on home energy efficiency upgrades that can be achieved to reduce their carbon emissions. The office was developed by Cork City Council with support from Sustainable Authority of Ireland, IERC, Tyndall National Institute and UCC. It is funded by two EU projects – ‘Upstairs’ and ‘Intensify’. Upstairs (Uplifting Energy Communities) targets the creation of energy communities and is funded by the EU’s Horizo n 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. An energy community is a collective
action targeting energy efficiency across homes, community centres and other projects within the community. The Upstairs project is also developing an online portal to answer any questions from the staff in the office. The Intensify Project is funded by the EU’s Interreg Europe Programme and aims to engage the public and empower them with the knowledge to reduce their carbon emissions through energy efficiency upgrade measures.
Electric Vehicle Fleet
In 2020, Cork City Council took the lead nationally by investing in 76 electric vehicles, creating the biggest local authority EV fleet in the country. The deployment of these EVs has reduced the City Council’s reliance on fossil fue l by approx. 110,000 litres of diesel per year. As the vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions, CO2 and Carbon has been reduced by an estimated 270 tonnes annually. Noise pollution will also be reduced. The running costs of the electric vehicles will be approx. 30% of diesel vehicles. The deployment of these vehicles has demonstrated that EVs are viable within local authority fleets. Cork City Council’s Community Climate Action Programme 2021/2022 - A Bottom-Up Approach to Governance and Climate Action Cork City Council understands the role citizens must play in tackling some of our biggest issues, as a result, the involvement of civil society through the Quadruple Helix model of Innovation has led to more bottom-up approaches, this is key to unlocking the potential and creativity of our citizens to solve the issues we face. In conjunction with the Cork City Public Participation Network, the City Council has partnered with Cork Environmental Forum to work with several communities across the city to develop bottom-up local Community Climate Action Plans. Acknowledging the key role all sectors need to play to address these challenges, this programme aims to help the city and its citizens deal with the current and future climate change and biodiversity crises. The Action Programme aims to assist communities through a series of workshops to develop a 2 – 3-year Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan for their local area.
Sustainable Travel: Electric Bikes and Cargo Bike Library
Cork City Council aims to encourage more sustainable travel. It has made a number of electric bikes
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available to Cork City Council staff who can book through an online system.
Cork City Council has also established a cargo bike fleet ‘library’ which is available to businesses and community groups who can borrow a bike for six months on a trial scheme to see if a cargo bike can be used on a daily basis as an alternative to other modes of transport before they invest heavily themselves. Cork City Council also utilises cargo bikes for use within the City Council across various departments. This project was initially funded through the National Innovation Fund.
Innovative and Sustainable Management of Invasive Species
Cork City Council has embraced a no-tech innovative solution for the management of non-native invasive species in a disused limestone quarry south of the city. A team of eight goats has been deployed at Beaumont Quarry to help manage non-native vegetation. The eco- friendly land management initiative is a partnership between Cork Nature Network and Cork City Council. The goats are fenced in so they can focus on the problem areas within the quarry as they eat what most animals won’t eat, work in rougher terrain, along riverbanks, and on steep slopes without causing damage to the environment.
The goats offer an opportunity to educate and demonstrate the implementation of essential conservation practices and local schools are invited to watch and learn about local conservation management. Cork City Council are looking at other areas where the goats can be deployed as part of a wider conservation programme.
Cork City GBi Strategy
The Cork City GBi Strategy (2021) is a vision and framework document for delivering Green and Blue Infrastructure in the city. The strategy is framed by international, national, and regional policy objectives and the UN sustainable development goals. In developing and delivering the strategy, Cork City Council are the first Local Authority in Ireland to integrate an evidence-based and granular GBi strategy into a city or county Land Use and Development Plan. Its core objective is to support and utilise GBI to enhance the urban context, delivering on the commitments listed in Cork City’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. The Cork City GBI Study has been transposed into the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 including the planning and delivery of 21 new City Scale GBI projects and new Development Management standards for protecting Watercourse corridors, Landscape protection and Biodiversity enrichment. ADVANCING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION USING INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS, PROCESSES, AND TOOLS FOR A SMART, SUSTAINABLE, INCLUSIVE CITY. As part of the EU City Mission, Cork City is committed to developing a Climate Neural and Smart City. The remainder of this section will highlight some of the achievements to date in delivering a smarter and more digitally enabled city. Cork City Council believes in the value of digitizing services but recognizes that not all our citizens have the confidence, infrastructure, or digital skills to engage online. For this reason, our digital services are an alternative method for engaging with the city council but traditional means of engagement including in-person, post and telephone still exist for citizens accessing services.
Cork C ity’s Digital Strategy
Cork City Council has led the development of Cork City’s first Digital Strategy in consultation with city contributors and following the European Commission’s Digital Cities Challenge programme. This three - year strategy, which conclu des in December 2023, aspires to make Cork ‘the connected city.’ It aims to enhance the quality of life of our citizens and promote economic development through digital transformation.
This strategy contains 77 actions and centres around four key ambition s to enhance Cork City’s digital maturity sustainably. These ambitions were developed with city stakeholders and include:
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Enhancing Digital Inclusion and Digital Skills.
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Increasing Connected Services for Citizens.
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Empowering People to use Open Data.
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Utilising Best in Class Digital Infrastructure.
Cork Smart Gateway
The Cork Smart Gateway is an ongoing collaborative initiative established in 2016 by Cork’s local authorities and academic partners – Munster Technological University, Tyndall National Institute and University College Cork – to support the development of Cork as a smart, sustainable, and inclusive region. The Cork Smart Gateway aims to develop an innovative ecosystem which increases economic activity, provides better public services, promotes collaboration and engagement, and enhances the quality of life for all who live, work, and visit Cork. In 2021, the Cork Smart Gateway expanded the steering group to include the local Energy and ICT Clusters, Energy Cork and the Tech Industry Alliance as well as the Cork Chamber of Commerce. Recently, the Cork Smart Gateway has delivered several webinars focused on emerging digital technologies with the objective of raising awareness of their potential and informing the public on their use. The Cork Smart Gateway sponsors an annual award at the ICT Cluster’s Annual Tech Leader’s Awards. The Smart Technology Innovation Award is presented to an organisation that has developed/integrated a technological innovation that has been demonstrated in Cork and shapes the cities and regions of tomorrow. The 2022 award was presented to the ICBF who is pioneering DNA traceability for cows to ensure that the future generations of cows in Ireland emit less carbon and demonstrate 100% transparency and traceability for consumers in the process.
Cork City Alerts
Cork City Alerts is a free email and/or text alert system for residents, businesses, and communities in Cork. Cork City Alerts aim to help citizens and businesses better prepare for emergencies and keep up to date on traffic changes and planning activity in the city.
Alerts for the following:
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Severe weather, flooding, and emergency events
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Water outages
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A weekly list of road closures and traffic diversions
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A weekly list of planning applications
Citizens can sign up for emergency, traffic and planning activity alerts at multiple locations e.g., near their home, workplace, school, college or where elderly parents live.
Public Wifi extension
Public Wi-Fi stations were installed across the city to improve the internet connectivity of the city for Cork City’s citizens and visitors. Cork City Council has 19 Public Wi -Fi areas. Most recently public Wifi was extended through the Wifi4EU programme to popular communit y and tourist areas including Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork City Public Museum, Bishop Lucey Park, Elizabeth Fort and the newly develop Marina Park.
Open Data
Cork City Council has developed an Open Data Portal to share open data sets that relate to Cork City. The CKAN based portal allows data to be shared in an open format for anyone to download, conduct research, develop applications, design data visualisation and more. CKAN is an open-source DMS (data management system) for powering data hubs and data portals. The Open Data Portal can be accessed via data.corkcity.ie. Cork City Council has installed several environmental sensors in the city to help provide real-time information about the city. Currently, sensors are monitoring real-time water levels of the river Lee. There is also real-time car parking information available for citizens.
Digital Access in our Libraries - Hublets
Cork City Libraries have procured several Hublets for some of their libraries. A hublet is a shared-use tablet which uses a smart docking station and is available for use by members of the public who use our libraries. A Hublet is an easy to use, safe and cost-effective self-service tablet solution for delivering
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HORIZON-EIC-2023-iCapitalPrize - The European Capital of Innovation Awards
EU Prizes: Application form (prizes) The European Capital of Innovation Awards: V1.0 – 08.03.2023
digital content to users of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, enabling libraries across the world to ensure digital inclusion for all. Cork City Libraries have rolled out Hublets to three of their libraries (Blackpool, Glanmire and Bishopstown) and these tablets have proved to be popular with customers to access online library resources and to access general online content and services. After every use, the Hublet automatically wipes the user's data fully and no personal information is stored. They are also safe and hygienic to use as they have a self-disinfecting coating. The Hublets are popular with older adults already and this will be further supported by the planned ‘Age Friendly Library liaison’ for each branch.
Remote Operated Vehicle for Cork City Council Fire Department
Cork City Council Fire Department successfully applied for funding through the National Innovation Fund to develop a robotic vehicle to help Cork City firefighters in high-risk environments. Currently, if the fire brigade comes across emergency incidents such as leaking hazardous materials or extremely high fire temperatures, they either must commit individuals to the high-risk environment, or not enter the area at all if the risk is deemed too high. This project is now trialling remotely operated vehicles (ROV) for firefighting, moving equipment and carrying out toxic or flammable air samples.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital Service Provision
Digital Government is not simply about putting front-end services online but rather it encompasses everything from the core digitisation of public services to the digital infrastructure, governance, and processes, including both front-end and back-office transformation needed to deliver services for citizens, businesses, and Government. As part of Cork City Council’s di gital transformation programme, an online consultation portal was launched to better enable citizens to have their say on submissions and surveys that are central to the development of the city. An online forms submission platform was also launched in 2020 and 174 services were made accessible to citizens. In 2022, almost 20,000 submissions were made by 17,000 registered users processing over €250,000 in payments .
Cork City Council Chatbot
Cork City Council has developed and launched the first local authority chatbot in Ireland. The chatbot is available on the Cork City Council website and was developed in-house using the MS Virtual Agent platform as a pilot project launched In April 2023. The chatbot was developed to reduce the number of customer service calls by enabling customers to find the information they require more easily through our website 24/7. Currently, the City Council receives over 3,000 customer service calls per week, and it is hoped that the chatbot will reduce these calls. The Cork City Council Website receives approximately 3.25 million page views per year. In the pilot phase, the customer can complete a feedback survey if they choose which supports real-time feedback for the in-house development team who can update the chatbot with missing information and also identify high-demand content that should be included on the website.
Cyber-social project with University College Cork
Cork City Council supports University College Cork’s Cyber -Social Research Lab which is developing a 3-year ethnographic study focusing on the experience of technology by people in daily life. By cyber- social we simply mean the integration of digital technologies with social life. The intermediate objective is to conduct local ethnographic research leading to evidence-based outputs that will help allay social issues in Cork City’s digital transition towards becoming a ‘Smart City’. The findings from CyberSocial will provide the required evidence-based outputs to effect socially informed and nuanced policy for cultivating a socially and digitally just space for cyber-social living.
Irish Local Government Information Sharing Analysis Centre (ISAC)
In 2022 Cork City Council’s ICT department in collaboration with the LGMA, the HIS Liaison Group, IVI Maynooth University, and the National Cyber Security Centre, successfully won funding through the National Innovation Fund to establish an Irish Local Government Information Sharing Analysis Centre (ISAC). Information Sharing Analysis Centres (ISAC) are non-profit organisations that provide a central resource for gathering information on cyber threats as well as allowing two-way sharing of information between the private and the public sector. The ISAC is comprised of all 31 local authorities and the Local government management agency.
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HORIZON-EIC-2023-iCapitalPrize - The European Capital of Innovation Awards
EU Prizes: Application form (prizes) The European Capital of Innovation Awards: V1.0 – 08.03.2023
Award criterion 2, Escalating – accelerating the growth of highly innovative start-ups and SMEs by establishing an innovation-friendly legal framework, creating an environment that stimulates growth, private and public investments, resources, diversity, and talents; and driving innovation demand through efficient innovation public procurement. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider providing information about concrete actions taken to pursue the growth of highly innovative start-ups and SMEs, as well as their quantitative and qualitative implications and/or impact about actions to promote the use of innovation procurement, or about actions aimed to promote investments and growth within the city. The city is expected to provide details on concrete results of the showcased initiatives.
A BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT THAT HELPS BUSINESSES TO SUCCEED.
Cork City has demonstrated a strong track record in recent years as a supportive place in which to start, grow and scale innovative start-ups. The city benefits from 35,000 third-level students, with two Universities – University College Cork (UCC) and Munster Technological University (MTU), as well as several well-established and successful start-up accelerator programmes. These include the New Frontiers Programme in MTU which supports around 12 new start-ups each year and the Ignite Programme in UCC. Cork has a strong track record in starting and growing innovative, internationally focussed Irish startups that include Voxpro; Teamwork; Trustev; Crest Solutions, Practice Evole, Aspira Qumas – to name just a few. Cork continues to produce more exciting and disruptive technology start- ups. Some of the newer ‘ones to watch’ include Keelvar, a Global Procurement Tendering Analysis Software using which has raised over €100 million, and now employs over 100 people in Cork, with offices in Germany and the USA.
Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland (EI) is the government agency responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. EI’s strategy focuses on addressing the need for greater scale across Irish enterprises through promoting innovation, competitiveness, diversification, and global ambition in its client companies. EI works
in partnership with high-growth Cork City enterprises to help them start, grow, innovate, and win export sales in global markets. This is achieved through an extensive range of pre-seed start-up funds, financial support, mentoring and innovation vouchers.
Enterprise Ireland figures showed that in 2021 in Cork City and County, there were:
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457 SMEs were supported by Enterprise Ireland.
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These companies employed 24,962 people.
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€41.9 million invested in SMEs by Enterprise Ireland.
Cork City Council and The Local Enterprise Office Cork City also work extensively with Enterprise Ireland to develop incubators/hubs and enterprise programmes in Cork City. Through this funding mechanism, Cork City Council developed Benchspace, Ireland’s f irst open-access factory/Incubator offering industry- grade tools, technology, and business support for professional makers & creative start-ups.
Local Enterprise Office Cork City
T he Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) are a business’s local first -stop shop for seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Cork City. The Local Enterprise Office provides advice, information, and support to businesses employing less than 50 employees who are seeking to start or grow their business. The Local Enterprise Office also offers a wide range of financial and non-financial support to small businesses. The Local Enterprise Office works in conjunction with all relevant stakeholders including, University College Cork, Munster Technological University and Cork BIC to create a highly supportive eco-system for small businesses in Cork City.
The role of the local enterprise office is to:
• To drive the development of local enterprises, local micro and small business at the heart of job creation in Cork City.
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To drive and support business start- ups and promote a ‘can - do’ business culture.
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To increase the job potential of new and existing micro and small businesses.
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To increase the number of innovative businesses with the potential to export.
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