Following five years of success, the Smart D8 initiative has a strong record supporting innovators with 19 impactful and scalable pilots delivered
26.02.26
Dublin 8’s smart innovation district – Smart D8 – has announced its latest call out for pilot projects intended to test new ideas and innovations in the areas of healthcare and community wellbeing. Now entering its sixth year, this year’s call focuses on innovative pilot projects across three key themes:
Up to three pilot projects will each receive up to €10,000 in funding, but crucially will be supported to validate their innovation with real users. Those selected will have the opportunity to trial new and emerging innovations for illness prevention with a general population to measure and evaluate their population health impacts – demonstrating their potential to positively impact people’s lives locally, nationally and internationally.
Since its inception, Smart D8 has established strong community connections through outreach with residents, businesses, schools, local organisations and networks to understand health and wellbeing priority areas and needs. Engaging with service providers, innovators and entrepreneurs to trial and test new products, services and ideas, the partnership works to matchmake innovative content and technologies with community networks and demonstrate their impacts on population health to scale.
Operating through funded pilot calls and partnerships, the Smart D8 testbed supports access to local knowledge and expertise and facilitates the development of innovative approaches that can enhance health and wellbeing with and in the local community.
Through the combined effort of pilot projects, local workshop initiatives and established engagement with existing community networks, Smart D8 has reached over 21,500 citizens living and working in Dublin 8, over 45% of the 45,000-strong population.
Speaking on the opening of pilot applications, Smart D8 Ecosystem Manager, Jack Lehane, said: “The partnership provides changemakers with a chance to connect their innovations with citizens in real-world community settings, and demonstrate their ability to scale to wider populations. We strongly encourage organisations from any sector that have population-scale innovations in these areas to apply, and look forward to seeing more projects deliver measurable impacts and outcomes across the Dublin 8 community and beyond in the year ahead.”
Applications will close on Thursday, 26th March at 11pm. For more information on Smart D8 and to find out how to apply for the latest round of pilot projects, please visit https://smartd8.ie.
Smart D8 is led by The Digital Hub, Dublin City Council, St James’s Hospital and Smart Dublin. They are joined by Tyndall National Institute, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, National College of Art & Design, the Guinness Enterprise Centre, Health Innovation Hub Ireland and the HSE in this unique collaborative initiative.
