The first stakeholder workshop of the I-CHANGE Dublin Living Lab took place last Friday in the Spatial Dynamics Lab of University College Dublin. It was attended by partners from industry, academia, local government and civil society.
The workshop started with a warm welcome from Prof Francesco Pilla, who then introduced partners to the I-CHANGE project and explained how it fits within the wide range of climate challenges that the Dublin Living Labs are tackling. This was followed by a presentation by Dr Anna Mölter showcasing the two sensors, the traffic counter and the air quality monitor, that will be installed in schools across Dublin as part of the I-CHANGE project. Then Dr Mölter and Grace D’Arcy from SmartDublin talked about the planned work with schools, which will start after the summer holidays. They showed an overview of the planned activities (sensor installation, co-creation of behavioural intervention, monitoring of intervention, dissemination of findings), the timeline for workshops in schools, the target number of schools that will participate, and some examples of activities that schools could do to promote active travel to the school. These examples included awareness campaigns targeting families or the local community around the school, as well as events such as active travel week.
After these presentations the hands-on part of the workshop began. Attendees were split into groups and each group was asked to identify risks, constraints and opportunities within four areas of the project: School recruitment, Workshops, Sensors, Empowerment activities. To document their ideas each group was given a large sheet of paper, different coloured pens and different coloured sticky notes. Lively discussions took place, and the attendees highlighted several risks and constraints that need to be taken into account during the project. However, they also identified a wide range of excellent opportunities for the project, and in several cases showed that risks and constraints could be converted into opportunities. For example, it was identified as a risk that low science capital could be a challenge for students; however, participating in I-CHANGE could be a great way to overcome this.
The interactive part of the workshop concluded with a brief presentation from each group on their main discussion points and findings. The workshop then finished off with a delicious pizza lunch, which meant all participants left with full stomachs and enlightened about the I-CHANGE project!
