[ Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028, Section 15(2) Two-Year Progress Report ]
In line with the Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP), key initiatives of Cork Learning City are the annual Lifelong Learning Festival (winner of Irish Festival of the Year in the 2022 Local Authority Management Awards), the Learning Neighbourhoods programme (active in 6 communities), Cork Learning Cities Day, Cork Access Network, and the “Cork Celebrates Lifelong Learning” award scheme. These initiatives and other learning events seek to action Cork as a Learning City to celebrate lifelong learning in action, and to deliver on the UN SDGs, in particular Goals 4, 11 and 17, and in doing so to follow the UN commitment to ‘Leave No-One Behind’. Cork Learning City development is aligned with the goals set out in the policy document ‘Towards a Learning Region’ which was launched by the Southern Regional Assembly (SRA) in September 2022, in an event supported by Cork Learning City, who secured and facilitated the participation of UNESCO’s Learning Cities Lead Raúl Valdes Cotera. Cork continues to engage closely with Limerick as a co-founding member of the Irish Network of Learning Cities (INLC) and nominated Waterford to join the INLC in 2023. Cork also supported a Waterford application to UNESCO, co-ordinated by the SRA, to join the Global Network of Learning Cities submitted in 2023. The INLC also includes Belfast, Derry-Strabane and Dublin Learning Cities. The network, formed in Cork in 2018, seeks to create a shared dedication to strengthening relations and enhancing cooperation between the people and City-regions, celebrate learning and the achievements of learners. On behalf of the Network Cork, with match funding and support from Derry-Strabane Council, successfully applied for Shared Island funding to develop the network further as an all-island inclusive initiative. A series of Learning City Exchange visits was delivered in 2023, hosted in turn by Cork, Belfast, Limerick and Derry-Strabane, and co-ordinated by Cork, to achieve the ‘Learning Island’ programme goals, aligned with Govt. policy on developing a Shared Island.
[OBJECTIVE 7.9] CORK DIGITAL CITY
In 2015, Cork City Council in collaboration with Cork County Council, MTU, UCC and Tyndall National Institute established a smart city and region initiative, the Cork Smart Gateway, to develop and pursue a smart agenda for Cork. Cork City Council continues to collaborate on a range of projects to solve issues faced in the region. It is a founding member and steering group member of the All-Ireland Smart Cities Forum. Cork City’s digital strategy aspires to support citizens and businesses to realise the benefits of digitisation. A number of digital actions are embedded in the strategy including citizen participation, support services, digital skills, open data, climate action, infrastructure, governance and leadership. Cork City was selected as a core city to participate in EU 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge . As part of the plan, Cork receives strategic advice from international experts on green economy, improving citizen participation and the digitisation of public administration and resilience. • Cork City is one of the EU 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities . This places a commitment on Cork City to significantly accelerate the delivery of the European Green Deal. These 100 cities are test beds for innovation in climate action to enable all European cities to follow suit in securing climate neutrality and smart city status by 2050. • In 2023 Cork was one of 6 cities shortlisted by the European Commission for the European Smart Tourism Award . A number of key projects include: •
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