Dublin City Council and Enterprise Ireland announced yesterday the winners of phase 1 of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) competition launched last March.
The call out sought to find smart technology solutions to help improve and scale up cycling across Dublin. It generated 98 expressions of interest and 23 proposals. Of those 23, 14 were invited to pitch their idea and 5 have been selected to receive funding of up to €12,500 and supports from Dublin City Council to research and demonstrate the viability of their solution.
The companies have three months to develop their solution to pre-prototype stage. After that, some will be selected for further funding (up to €25,000 each) to complete their prototypes.
Philip McAlesse, Ryan Farrelly od See.Sense, Larry Wawro, Mark Bennett of BikeLook, Mick Berry of M2C Smartcharge Ltd, Conor Cahill, Sile Ginnane of Liberty Bell and Xavier Torres-Tuset of Hidnseek. Picture Jason Clarke
The chosen companies and their smart solutions are:
- Ambie introducing BikeLook which monitors bicycle usage and deters and detects bicycle theft
- Fluidedge introducing Liberty Bell, a bell that allows cyclists to record actual or perceived obstacles to aid safe cycling in Dublin
- HidnSeek presents a low power device attached to a bicycle that generates real time data with can be integrated with other data sources
- Limeforge Ltd. offers the See.Sense tracker providing a ‘find your iphone’ like capability allowing cyclists to easily track their stolen bikes
- M2C Smartcharge Ltd. introduces a tracking, logging and data harvesting system for use with bicycles in an urban area aiding the cyclist in predicting the ease of a journey, safety along the way and creating a secure parking facility and the end of the journey
Kevin Sherry, Divisional Manager, Enterprise Ireland commented “Enterprise Ireland is excited to work with Dublin City Council on this initiative, and we congratulate the phase one winners on their innovative solutions which will improve the cycling experience and safety of bicycle users in urban areas.”
David Timoney, Dublin Cycling Campaign who are supporting the initiative added “There are real opportunities to use these new low cost innovations to better understand cycling patterns and experiences. This in turn will allow for more evidence based decisions by the City on cycling infrastructure. The data will hopefully strengthen the already strong arguments for increased transport spends on cycling. Furthermore solutions to address cycle theft in Dublin through smart tracker devices have the potential to dramatically reduce bike theft levels currently estimated at a staggering €20,000 per annum in Dublin alone.”
https://smartdublin.ie/cycling-challenge-phase-1-winners-announced/