Cork City Council in collaboration with Cork Smart Gateway and Louth County Council are seeking citizens and researchers to collaborate and develop new solutions for climate.
Citizens, researchers and industry partners from across all of Ireland are being recruited to form ten teams of six participants!
The Cork Smart Gateway and Cork City Council are seeking innovative solutions that will help achieve the objectives set out in the EU Mission for Climate Neutral and Smart Cities in which Cork City is a participant. Areas of interest include increasing the use of public transport and improving the energy efficiency and rate of retrofit in commercial buildings.
To participate, citizens must first propose a climate challenge that they consider relevant within their community, city, or region framed within the context of the two EU Missions, while researchers must bring their expertise to join forces with the citizens to develop the solutions. Guided by facilitators, mentors, teachers, and jury members, the teams will be guided through a series of workshops to develop and prototype their solutions. From the ten competing Irish teams, two will progress to compete at the EU level against forty-four other teams.
These two winning will receive training in order to sharpen their skills through a dedicated training and coaching programme where they will learn about managements, entrepreneurship, sustainability and social impact. After the training and coaching, the teams will participate in the EU final, where they will compete to be one of the three European Citizens Championship-winning teams. In addition to receiving cash prizes (€5,000), these winning teams will receive, tailored mentorship, support for a crowdfunding campaign, access to the angel investor network and support to escalate their solution.
You can find out more information and register by scanning the QR code above or visiting the EU Sparks website.