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Limerick Innovation Virtual Event - University of Limerick President Professor Kerstin Mey, Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Niall Collins and Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler pictured finding their way through a virtual reality programme at the two-day ‘Limerick Innovation Virtual Event’ at UL’s Science Foundation Ireland research centre, CONFIRM, in Castletroy. Picture: Brian Arthur Limerick Innovation Virtual Event - University of Limerick President Professor Kerstin Mey, Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Niall Collins and Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler pictured finding their way through a virtual reality programme at the two-day ‘Limerick Innovation Virtual Event’ at UL’s Science Foundation Ireland research centre, CONFIRM, in Castletroy. Picture: Brian Arthur

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Collaboration gives Limerick an edge in ensuring all benefit from digital transformation 

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Limerick Innovation Virtual Event – University of Limerick President Professor Kerstin Mey, Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Niall Collins and Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler pictured finding their way through a virtual reality programme at the two-day ‘Limerick Innovation Virtual Event’ at UL’s Science Foundation Ireland research centre, CONFIRM, in Castletroy. Picture: Brian Arthur

Collaboration gives Limerick an edge in ensuring all benefit from digital transformation 

Limerick Innovation Virtual Event Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler and University of Limerick President Professor Kerstin Mey pictured finding their way through a virtual reality programme. Picture: Brian Arthur

Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler and University of Limerick President Professor Kerstin Mey pictured finding their way through a virtual reality programme. Picture: Brian Arthur


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Limerick’s unrivalled level of collaboration can help ensure everyone benefits from the digital transformation and positive impact of innovation, the inaugural Limerick Innovation Virtual Event (LIVE) has heard.

Addressing the two-day Limerick Innovation Virtual Event event broadcast from UL’s Science Foundation Ireland CONFIRM centre in Castletroy, Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Daniel Butler said that one of the biggest tasks for the digital transformation is making sure it does not leave people behind but unique collaboration embracing public and private sectors, as well as communities, is giving Limerick and edge.

“Limerick is a success story in innovation and digital transformation because of the level of collaboration. We have so many of the key partners at the table here in Limerick; the local authority, the education institutions, private sector, civic organisations, all buying into ‘digital Limerick’. Everyone in society, whether they realise it or not, is engaged by the digital transformation. So, when you have all the key partners working together in a way that few others do, you are bound to have an edge in connecting with everyone in society and bringing them on that journey.

“We pride ourselves on being a Smart City and part of being a smart city is to use Information and Communications Technology to enhance the quality, performance and interactivity of our services.  It is also about making sure we are prepared to respond to challenges by co-designing our future: people, council, business, and researchers working together to do this.”

Described as the ‘Toy Show of Tech’ in the Mid-West, the event – held under the auspices of Limerick’s ‘Smart City’ programme – saw a gathering of key collaborators in the success story that is innovation in Limerick. ‘LIVE’ is part of Limerick City and County Council’s ‘Smart Limerick’ programme part-funded under the European Union’s Urbact ‘Find Your Greatness’ project – Europe’s first strategic brand building programme for its Smart Cities. Urbact’s focus is on fostering sustainable integrated urban development in cities across Europe.

The two-day event included an overview of Smart Limerick’s journey, a presentation of the success story that ‘Film in Limerick’ has become, a panel discussion on how the digital transformation is going to play a key role in the revitalisation of Limerick’s city centre; it had Limerick’s first ever drone lunch-drop, as well as sessions on ‘Digital Transformation & Education’ and the need to develop a future-proofed talent supply-chain that ensures the smart sustainable city and innovation momentum is maintained. There were presentations from both UL and TUS on their innovation enterprises, while the Limerick Makers Club also outlined its activities and issued an open invitation to other ‘makers’ to join the growing innovation movement.

There were also sessions this morning that involved the launch of the All-Ireland Smart Cities strategy as well as research on Digital Inclusion in Limerick, as well as presentations from Limerick based multi-nationals Dell and Analog Devices.

Launching the event, Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Niall Collins said that Limerick is steeped in a tradition of innovation is very much focussed on a future built on innovation. “We have the infrastructure built around our researchers who are driving innovation. The University of Limerick, the Technological University of Shannon Midlands Mid-West and all of our manufacturing base around here and our FDI base have all collaborated and fed into this tradition also. But importantly, there’s huge opportunities now for innovation, for example the Shannon estuary, where will now be looking at new technologies, green technologies and the innovations that we’re now going to need to meet our climate change requirements,” he said.

UL President Kerstin Mey also emphasised the strength of collaboration in Limerick.  “This Smart City event today highlights the level of innovation in Limerick and it also highlights the number of stakeholders involved. It is really a showcase for quintuple helix innovation, where the city, the government, the businesses, communities, the University all work together in order to change the life of people in the city. This kind of collaboration brings innovation to life and really makes a change to people’s life in the city.”

The digital transformation, Professor Mey said, is driving change and Limerick is responding to the challenges and shaping the future in a multitude of dimensions.  “Look to our FDI partners who have come to Limerick, they do so because of the rich vein of talent we have here, because of the expertise and indeed the development of advances in the areas of structural materials and global tech, of medical systems and pharma amongst others. Limerick is on the up and we want to bring everyone along and this event will lend opportunities for our citizens to become involved and help shape our interventions and advancements.”

Also speaking at the event, Chief Executive of Limerick City and County Council Dr Pat Daly said that Limerick must be in a position to harness and exploit its innovation strengths. He also revealed that Limerick City and Council is cooperating with UL on a Citizen Innovation Lab to be a focal point for future co-creation activities in Limerick to sustain and underpin Limerick’s future. This will, he said, complement centres such as CONFIRM, ENGINE at Innovate Limerick in the city centre, Digital Collaboration Centre, The FabLab, NEXUS, the Hartnett Enterprise Acceleration Centre where people come to create, solve problems which will generate new jobs for the next generation of Limerick people.

“We are moving to a common vision for our city and county. We want Limerick to be confident and proud, channelling our edginess and embracing creativity while all the time becoming recognised as the best place in Ireland to study, work play live,” he added.

More info on CONFIRM is available HERE 

For other stories on Technology go HERE 

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.