The Smart D8 District brings together local authorities, academia, healthcare, local community and industry in a partnership model to address real world issues.
The Digital Hub, Smart Dublin, Dublin City Council and St. James’s Hospital are joined by HSE Digital Transformation, Tyndall National Institute, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Trinity Research & Innovation, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, National College of Art & Design, Guinness Enterprise Centre and Health Innovation Hub Ireland as partners in this unique initiative.
The programme applies a people-centric approach, with the engagement and active participation of the local community at its core.
In late 2020, the first Community Survey initiative was launched to capture the needs and priorities of the local community. The findings formed the foundation of the Smart D8 programme — initial themes identified in consultation with the community include mental health, the impact of Covid-19, population health, environment, and positive and healthy ageing.
In early 2021 the first call for pilot projects to focus on Covid-19 Impact, Mental Health and Population Health was made. Five successful projects were announced, from 37 applications:
- Civic Dollars — A community currency to encourage use of public parks and drive better health outcomes for the community, led by Dublin City Council and Moai Digital founder Stephen McPeake. The project uses a smartphone app to reward visitors with Civic Dollars for spending time in participating Dublin 8 parks, which can then be exchanged for goods and services from local businesses or gifted to local community organisations. Anonymised data also gives the council feedback needed to understand what communities want from the parks.
- Heart of our City — In partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation and Novartis, Heart of our City is a population health program that will focus on heart health in Dublin 8. This pilot project will connect people in Dublin 8 with a range of resources to support their cardiovascular health, building on existing social prescribing initiatives in the locality.
- Virtual Reality Meditation Platform — In partnership with SolasVR, this project will pilot a Virtual Reality Meditation platform in the community. SolasVR enables a micro-break to allow the users to create some time and space away from events or situations that are impacting them.
- Ways to Wellbeing: Learning from Locals — In partnership with St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Ways to Wellbeing is a project that will support students in learning about mental health and wellbeing through engaging with the lives of the older community in Dublin 8. The project is designed for students of both primary and secondary schools in the locality.
- Learnovate for a health educational initiative.
In early 2022 a second call for pilots was made from within the Smart D8 consortium and a further three pilot projects were chosen:
- ehealth exhibition (Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, the National College of Art and Design and Trinity College Dublin)
- Bee8 (The Digital Hub, Tyndall National Institute, St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services and the National College of Art and Design)
- District Health Data repository (Trinity College Dublin and St. James’s Hospital)
Get Involved
To learn more about Smart D8 email: