Dublin

Profit with Purpose

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:33:01 +0000

Profit with Purpose

Tags

Business

Award

Date

30th October 2019

Venue

Dublin

Calling all innovators who want to make Profit with Purpose!

Why apply?

Business consultation and access to incubation space
Professional presentational skill training and pitch preparation
VIP tickets to the Responsible Innovation Summit
Access to boot camp programme in Dublin
Extra promotion and networking opportunities

Application is open in 2 categories - Early Stage Concept and Business Practice - to every project regardless of nationality or location.

Best finalists will have the chance to present their project at the international Responsible Innovation Summit conference, 30 October 2019, Dublin.

The award supports products/services which are profitable, sustainable and socially desirable at the same time. Can you make a Profit with Purpose?

Find out more about the application process and last year finalists, winners!

Business SPIRIT Award

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Your input is needed to create better innovations

kiss.tamas — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:31:47 +0000

Your input is needed to create better innovations

Tags

Research

Responsible Innovation

Date

8th July 2019

Venue

Dublin

Your input is needed: Collaborate on the open source „Ethics Canvas” framework

Your contribution is needed to create a free tool which can help to build a better society and better quality of life for all of us using innovative solutions with a positive impact.

The Ethics Canvas framework provides a tool that can be part of the solution to the problems that ethics in research and innovation faces. It allows researchers and innovators to reflect on the ethical impacts of their work.

This is as a free open source material which was designed as an intuitive tool that helps innovators to:

Brainstorm about the ethical implications of a project and represent them in a canvas.
Analyse the ethical concerns of a project considering all stakeholders and find suitable solutions that reflect on shared values.
Learn from similar use cases and share your experiences

The Ethics Canvas is an easy to use collaborative tool that assists in the identification of ethical impacts of research and innovation projects and incentivises actions towards tackling these impacts.

Learn more

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Circular Economy training for SMEs

kiss.tamas — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:21:59 +0000

Circular Economy training for SMEs

Tags

Circular Economy

Profit with Purpose

Business

Date

1st July 2019

Venue

Dublin

The first MODOS training programme was a 6-week Circular Economy primer for SMEs. It combined a wide range of expertise from business, environment, design thinking, marketing and communication.

The MODOS training is an entrepreneurship programme that encourages the development of innovative and sustainable business.

Businesses that rely on materials to create goods or products that are distributed through a supply chain can benefit most from the training. However, all suitable companies who want to be more efficient and which can potentially profit from the programme are encouraged to apply.

The course is designed for micro, small and medium enterprises to improve their environmental performance and explore new business opportunities at the same time. It provides the tools and knowledge to make this transition happen in the business community.

The training also offers an opportunity for creating competitive advantage, spot new market opportunities, build better customer relationships, and peer-to-peer networking. It also includes the introduction of financial support available for businesses who undertake sustainable and circular projects and the support offered by the Local Enterprise Office.

This programme is an initiative of the Economic Development Office, Dublin City Council (DCC) and the Eastern Midlands Waste Region Office (EMWRO), in collaboration with key stakeholders.

After the first rollout of the programme, the “MODOS Phase II” is coming soon. The goal is once again to facilitate the transition towards circularity by providing the sectoral knowledge and practical resources.

Learn more about Circular Economy and why business leaders need to get ready for upcoming changes.

More details about MODOS training

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Mainstreaming Responsible Research and Innovation

kiss.tamas — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:20:46 +0000

Mainstreaming Responsible Research and Innovation

Tags

Responsible Research and Innovation

Date

1st July 2019

Venue

Dublin

Partners from 8 regions are facing challenges together to integrate the concept of Responsible Innovation into local funding programmes. The journey is long from good intention to good practices.

EU regions are starting to address Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), but they face common challenges of the perceived complexity of the concept and means of application. There is a huge potential here if they can overcome barriers such as lack of awareness.

Giulia Bubbolini from the Centre for Innovation and Economic Development and Jessica Huntingford, Head of European Projects at Resolvo are working shoulder to shoulder with 10 partners from 8 regions on the MARIE (Mainstreaming Responsible Innovation in European 3S) project to integrate Responsible Innovation into funding programmes.

Q: What is the easiest way to explain RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation?

“We can only find the right answers to the challenges we face by involving as many stakeholders as possible in the research and innovation process. Research and innovation must respond to the needs and ambitions of society, reflect its values, and be responsible.” The European Commission (Science in Dialogue Towards a European Model for Responsible Research and Innovation, 2012),

That sounds like an ambitious goal but we’d like to keep it simple and linking it to real life examples happening in our regions.

In practice, if you work towards RRI you know that innovation is essential for our enterprises to compete and survive on the global market and that it has the potential to change lives. However, you also know that there are too many examples of innovations that have reached the market only to reveal negative short or long-term impacts.

RRI is an attempt to anticipate these negative impacts and to redirect innovation towards a model that reflects on creating a positive impact from the start to the finish of the innovation chain.

Q: What are the key objectives of the MARIE project and how do you see progress so far?

A lot of work has been done at the academic level and even at the individual enterprise level and to set a framework in place at the European level. Less work has been done to ensure that local and regional authorities are designing and implementing policies that really encourage their beneficiaries and stakeholders to anticipate negative impacts of innovation and reflect on impact.

This is where MARIE project fits in.

We want to take RRI to the public policy sphere. We use interregional exchange to help public authorities to integrate responsibilities into major innovation funding programmes, including ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Regional Operational Programmes and the Smart Specialisation Strategies that lie behind them.

Our objective is to ensure that regional public policy supports the delivery of RRI to enterprises’ product, process and service design, production and distribution.

After 2 and a half years we are already seeing concrete results.

We started with exchanging, understanding and analysing. Now partners are using that foundation to design Action Plans that detail in concrete terms how their policies can incorporate RRI and promote it across their territories. Some are creating a community of stakeholders to raise awareness about RRI.

Others are considering how to integrate responsible criteria into ERDF calls for innovative SMEs or for other territorial actors. Partners are also looking at how the monitoring systems of their Research & Development (R&D) funded projects can better reflect a focus on impact. Action Plans will be finalised and approved by the end of this year

Q: Could you give us more insights on the MARIE project partners?

Our partners are all stakeholders involved in local and regional development. They either manage directly or support main policy instruments in their territories, which is important to ensure that we can have a real impact on the policy framework.

We have 4 regional councils/ministries, 1 national funding agency and 3 local development and innovation agencies. We also have 2 universities, both supporting their regional authority in Action Plan development. Our partners cover 8 European countries, and each has had something to offer in terms of experience.

We have been lucky because our partners are committed to the project and to the theme of RRI and are really working to achieve project results.

We also put a good management structure in place, covering all our bases. Centre for Innovation and Economic Development is a lead partner with previous project management experience and extensive knowledge of RRI.

The Exchange Coordinator role was allocated to Athens University of Economic and Business – Research Centre ensuring that the methodological structure of the project was sound. Resolvo Srl, expert in Interreg Europe and specialised in responsible development, supports all stages of project design, implementation and monitoring.

Q: What is your biggest learning so far as a partner in the MARIE project?

One of our partners is the Southern Regional Assembly in Ireland, where RRI is a relatively new concept however through their involvement in the MARIE project they have been introduced to an RRI community they may not otherwise have been aware of.

“Engaging with our stakeholders has made us realise there is a huge appetite out there for working responsibly which is very encouraging.

Interreg Europe promotes small policy changes and the biggest learning we have taken as a partner is the far-reaching impact even a small change to public policy can have. “, said Karen Coughlan, EU projects officer at Southern Regional Assembly.

Q: What is the potential impact of this project?

Our objective is not to make wide-scale recommendations, not to influence European and national agendas. We are expecting impact largely at the regional level.

We aim to make real change to the funding programmes currently in place in the European regions involved in MARIE. We will be monitoring this change over the second phase of the project, which runs from January 2020 to December 2021.

So far, partners are expecting to increase awareness among regional stakeholders about RRI, its potential benefits and how to apply it. They are also expecting to grow the number of applications for regional R&D funding that incorporate RRI analysis, measures and monitoring.

We hope that the long-term impact of these concrete changes will be visible in terms of more economic development: competitive SMEs, who innovate responsibly.

Q: What have been the most inspirational part of the MARIE project so far for you?

As Lead Partner, we have an overview of what all partners are doing and of the whole evolution of the project. The most inspirational part so far was seeing all the learning and exchange suddenly kick in, when a couple of regions came forward with real proposals to make an immediate change to their policy instruments.

They showed all of us that interregional cooperation can lead to action, if we are proactive and grab the opportunity to make a change. We look forward to seeing the same happen to the other partners – they are all working hard in that direction.

“Knowing we have a voice in how to influence regional policy for innovation has been hugely inspirational. RRI is a not that well known in Ireland so working as a partner on the project with other regions with the same goals has been of immense value.

We all want the world to be a better place and RRI plays a huge role in achieving this. Through our involvement in the MARIE project, we get to set the framework for a better future.” adding Karen Coughlan representing the Southern Regional Assembly in Ireland.

Q: Can you share some of the best case studies that you came across in the MARIE project?

We are already seeing concrete results with our project. Here are two examples:

Finland

In Tampere region, the regional council has integrated Responsible Innovation (RI) criteria into the evaluation of proposals within an ERDF call on Artificial Intelligence. All proposals were asked to demonstrate the value of their proposal in terms of 6 RI criteria: engagement, ethics, openness and transparency, safety and reliability. Proposals are under evaluation and it is expected that 5 will be approved, mobilising around 1.7M€: 5 projects that are more responsible, thanks to this change.

Southern and Eastern Region of Ireland

In Southern Ireland, the regional assembly has integrated the monitoring system for ERDF research funding with principles related to public engagement and science education, encouraging researchers to consider further the social impact of their work. This monitoring covers two funding schemes, which between them have co-funded set up of 14 research centres and made 17 awards to existing research centres. All of these will integrate responsible principles to their monitoring.

Q: Is there any advice that you would share with someone who is interested to work on RRI related projects?

As Lead Partner, we have attempted to fit MARIE into a network of European projects working on RRI. There are so many projects out there at the moment, so it makes sense to work with others and build on what they are doing.

We would suggest that anyone interested in RRI should first see what has already been done and then get in contact with the people that did it. You can learn so much, save time and get better results

"The best is to come in with an open mind! Collaboration and learning are key to the success of any project so don’t be afraid to reach out to someone already working on a project in this area.

There is a huge RRI community and there will be no obstacle or problem that hasn’t been encountered and overcome.

RRI can sometimes be perceived as stick however it can also prove to be a very effective carrot when used in the right way!

Responsibility and success can go hand in hand." says Karen Coughlan

Over the next few months, you can expect to find there more examples of policy improvements going on across our partner regions.

We would be glad to welcome stakeholders who are interested to find out more to join us in November 2019 in the beautiful city of Santiago de Compostela for our final Phase 1 event.

Learn more about the MARIE project

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Future-proofing small enterprises in Ireland

Dr Joanne Rourke — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:19:27 +0000

Future-proofing small enterprises in Ireland

Tags

Circular Economy

Business

Date

15th July 2019

Venue

Dublin

First-ever business training for SMEs about Circular Economy was held in Dublin.

There is a potential of €1.8 trillion to be generated just in Europe from the circular economy. Businesses that do not embed sustainability within their business model will be out of business in the long run. We are experiencing a paradigm shift in the economy and it is important that business leaders act now towards the transition, in order to make their company future-ready.

Overview from Dr Joanne Rourke, Environmental Scientist with over 20 years experience of environmental work. Dr Rourke is the Resource Efficiency Officer in the Eastern-Midlands Waste Regional Office, based in Dublin City Council.

Circularity in a nutshell

Circular Economy offers us a way to continue a good standard of living without continuing to wreak the planet, so this is a way of protecting both the environment and the economy.

It is a strategy designed to keep resources such as materials, energy, water etc. in play for as long as possible and to extract the maximum value from the resources we use so that natural resources are protected and regenerated.

The focus is on reuse, repair, regeneration and then on recycling.

In a Circular Economy, the use of virgin materials is reduced and less waste is produced, however, it is not a new concept at all, we’ve been here before with this idea, but the timing is important.

It’s practically an alternative production system to our current wasteful linear model of take – make – use – discard, where we take resources, make stuff, use this stuff and then throw it away.

This is the way in which most businesses are operating at the moment and it is becoming less tenable as so much value is lost from the system and it is detrimental to the environment.

A Critical point for both the planet and for business

Consumers

The various environmental crises we are seeing such as climate change, the plastic tide, biodiversity collapsing is causing real and present concern for the public and so consumers want more ethical and eco-friendly products and services.

Research on consumer trends in Ireland, the EU and the USA all points to consumers becoming not just more aware of environmental issues but also becoming more willing to make ethical purchasing decisions. Consumers are now demanding quality goods and services that have been produced as efficiently as possible and they are ready to pay more for them.

Supply chain

At the same time, mineral resources such as precious and heavy metals are becoming scarce and natural capital is diminishing. For businesses, this means more expensive raw materials and less security of supply. Large corporate supply chains, as well as financial institutions, are no longer willing to work with or invest in businesses that are not complying with higher environmental standards.

Employees

Likewise, jobs market trends suggest that the Millennial generation, so those of about 22 to 37 years, want to work for companies that reflect their values and that are doing the ‘right thing’. So companies who want to attract and retain that talent will need to transition towards values-driven business models.

Regulations

There is also an important policy and legislative context to consider here. The EU Circular Economy Package was passed into legislation and it lays down ambitious recycling targets for a range of materials. It requires products to be designed without hazardous materials, if at all possible, and in such a way that they can be easily repaired and easily taken apart to be reused or recycled.

This is law now, so companies need to move towards Circular Economy models to ensure compliance.

"The times ahead will be challenging for enterprises that follow the 'take-make-waste' traditional approach.

They are more exposed to the risks associated with future resource shortages and price fluctuations, supply continuity, new market dynamics and tighter environmental laws," says Michela Ferrando, project coordinator at the Economic Development Department, Dublin City.

Adopting Circular Economy

These trends will push companies to innovate new products and services with significantly less negative environmental impacts. Implementing the concept of Circular Economy, in turn, will help companies to differentiate themselves and build new markets with the new ‘woke’ generation.

All of this helps the bottom line and is likely to result in better returns for investors as well.

Upcoming trends

A focus on textiles, particularly fast fashion, as a waste stream; it’s such a polluting and wasteful industry.
Increasingly aware consumers – remember the school strikes are being led by today’s teenagers and they will be working and shopping from the next decade onwards.
Prioritisation of environmental issues at policy level both in Ireland and the EU, which will have an impact on how much is expected of business.
Sharing platforms for items such as cars, clothes, tools etc., are going to become even more popular as a business model.

Steps to be taken

The first step is building knowledge about Circular Economy among small enterprises. Corporates are aware and are planning for Circular Economy whereas the awareness is still low among SMEs.

Items to help businesses would include training materials for their staff on the basic concepts of Circular Economy, as well as even more basic materials, such as signage and systems to help improve segregation of waste and recycling.

Eco-design is of vital importance in the Circular Economy and everything flows from design – so templates and exercises for planning and designing in a more eco-oriented mindset would be great to have here.

It’s important to get these foundational things right first.

Business training for small businesses about Circular Economy

In collaboration with some key stakeholders, Dublin City Council recently delivered the MODOS training programme which was a 6-week Circular Economy primer for SMEs. It combined a wide range of expertise from business, environment, design thinking, marketing and communication to help SMEs learn about the concept of Circular Economy and begin to transition their businesses.

The MODOS training is an entrepreneurship programme that encourages the development of innovative and sustainable business.

The name MODOS comes from the Latin expression modus operandi, meaning the way something operates or works, a method of procedure.

The blue colours of the logo were inspired by the journey of Ellen McArthur who sailed solo around the globe and realised that within her boat she could manage a circular and closed system of waste and resources.

Future-proofing your business

The training also offers an opportunity for creating competitive advantage, spot new market opportunities, build better customer relationships, and peer-to-peer networking. It also includes the introduction of fundings available for businesses who undertake sustainable and circular projects and the support offered by the Local Enterprise Office in Dublin.

The power of peer-to-peer networking element was one of the biggest added value of the course. Meeting at the MODOS training inspired three of the participant companies to start working together on the development of a new innovative circular product for the event management space.

Participants of the first MODOS training were in fact quite diverse, including businesses from the catering industry to fashion, event planning, design, cosmetics and manufacturing. For example, Native Events is a leader in sustainable event solutions in Ireland, while Viva Green have been pioneers in creating innovative sustainable products over the 25 years.

After the first rollout of the programme, the “MODOS Phase II” training is coming soon. The goal is once again to facilitate the transition towards circularity by providing the sectoral knowledge and practical resources.

For this purpose, we want to develop a simple check-list or score-cards to assess where a business stands in terms of circularity, and in cases where a business scores low - provide resources and support accordingly.

Future proofing SMEs in Ireland:

The MODOS training to be scaled-up and run on a national basis.
Offering various supports for Irish businesses in moving towards more sustainable practices.
Connect, empower and promote companies who wish to embrace the circular business model.
Grow a community of trail blazer business leaders.

How to get involved?

The circular economy implies a holistic approach and relates to the whole business process and life cycle of a product (or a service), from design and choice of materials to manufacturing techniques and product’s end of life.

This journey might be quite overwhelming and take some time to process. The best approach is to start step-by-step by looking at areas of your business where things can be improved or done differently.

More details about MODOS training

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