The impact of SMARTIMPACT

This growth has placed considerable strain on resources and affected the way municipalities offer services and urban planning.
SMARTIMPACT, funded through the EU URBACT programme, is a two year project (May 2016 – May 2018)). Led by Manchester City Council, the focus is on cities, people and the promotion of smart, sustainable development. The partnership represents the bringing together of ten European cities to share their experience, ideas and smart policies related to their ‘Smart City journey’.
SMARTIMPACT launched on 3rd May 2016 and held its first meeting in Dublin Docklands Authority in June 2016.  This meeting laid out the two year programme that focuses on thematic areas such as Organisation Development; Finance and Procurement; Innovation Eco-System; Regulations & Incentives and Data integration & E-Government.
SMARTIMPACT on Dublin City
Smart Dublin, representing Dublin City Council, are engaging with the municipalities of nine EU cities, with all cities sharing their Smart Stories and experiences. Through creative workshops, reviewing EU Smart Polices and innovative projects, the cities are provided with a fresh prospective on engaging with businesses, universities and most importantly the Citizen. 
As a local authority, the focus for Dublin City Council/Smart Dublin was on the use of Public Private Partnership (PPP) by encouraging the creation of living labs in Dublin City. Over the course of the project, Dublin City will be opened as a living lab to test products and services to attract foreign investment, improvements to services and offer technology based SMEs real world testing for their products/services. 
The proposition of this Action Planning Network is that it should not be the role of Local Authorities to lead in the creation of new technologies but instead to act as facilitators to encourage and provide infrastructure access to SMEs, universities and foreign investment in the provision of services/products for the betterment of the Citizen without sacrificing privacy.

What’s involved
Over the course of the two years, six two day programmes are being hosted by the partner cities. These gatherings provide an opportunity to experience smart city solutions in action. Each two day workshop covers one of the thematic areas, site visits and talks by invited experts offering solutions to city challenges.
At the end of the project each city will produce an integrated action plan which they will share with their respective municipality leaders. This document will outline current projects and suggest changes to current policies to allow for the further exploration using technology within the city.
What we have learned
The SMARTIMPACT has already proven itself to be a hub of learning, creating opportunities for shared learning - from Stockholm’s Smart Environmental policies to Eindhoven’s use of Smart Lighting and Porto’s excellent citizen engagement to name but a few. There is, according to Smart Dublin, a wealth of knowledge to be accessed through this Network to help improve Dublin City. The partner cities are, for example, creating a two-way communication channel with their fellow EU colleagues, mitigating project duplication and seeing outcomes and data on tested solutions.


What’s Next
The final workshop will be held in Guadalajara, Spain later this year on Data integration & E-Government. With a high number of citizens using smart devices and the Internet on a daily basis, they expect ease of access to Local Authority services online. Through this workshop, Dublin City hopes to gain a better understanding of what services other EU cities have implemented, and if it is possible to apply them to Dublin City Local Authority. 

For further information on SMARTIMPACT in Dublin, and the work of Smart Dublin, contact, Mr. Mainard Gallagher at:  Mainard.gallagher@dublincity.ie

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