Smart Docklands Call for Pilots 2025: Open Soon

Smart Docklands supports the adoption of new and emerging technologies in cities. The programme fast tracks innovation that addresses local and global challenges through collaboration, testing, learning, and education. The programme successfully facilitates and enables the testing and trialling of smart city solutions by identifying local challenges, shaping the future of cities. In 2025, this engagement and facilitation will continue with an open call for pilots. 

Building on the success of the Call for Pilots 2024, this year’s programme continues to focus on how technology can be used to create a better, more sustainable, and inclusive city. The four key themes were shaped by feedback gathered through the Smart Docklands community survey and wider engagement with Dublin City Council, CONNECT Centre and communities and businesses based in the Docklands.

The goal of this engagement was to identify local challenges and launch an open call for pilots to co-develop and test potential solutions. The four themes identified are:

  • Urban Greening/Biodiversity
  • Mobility Innovation
  • Accessibility/Inclusive Design
  • Digital Tools/Tech Access

The call seeks to support the development of impactful, scalable and sustainable pilots involving public bodies, private stakeholders, academia and local communities. The pilot proposals should be ready to deploy with service users, where appropriate, and should be in a position to measure impacts within a six-month timeframe. 

You will be able to apply soon!

Smart Docklands Pilot Call Themes:

Some examples of the types of pilots which would be relevant to the Docklands area are given here for illustrative purposes. 

Urban Greening/Biodiversity:

Proposals may include, but are not limited to solutions that:

  • Pilot smart urban green spaces that use IoT and sensor technologies to support climate action goals and enhance sustainability, while testing their impact on local resilience.
  • Integrate data-driven tools to monitor and manage biodiversity, assessing how these insights can inform local and national climate action plans.
  • Develop pilots that invite citizen participation in biodiversity conservation and sustainable practices through accessible digital platforms, studying what drives engagement.
  • Launch educational and awareness initiatives, leveraging smart city solutions to foster and evaluate community stewardship of green infrastructure.

Mobility Innovation:

Proposals may include, but are not limited to solutions that:

  • Pilot and showcase new mobility solutions in the Docklands, combining emerging technologies with sustainable, people-centred transport, and measure uptake and equity.
  • Expand active travel initiatives by using data and community input to improve walking, cycling, accessibility, and safety, and assess their effectiveness.
  • Explore responsible drone applications for logistics, monitoring, and public services, ensuring regulation, safety, and trust are built in – and tested from the outset.
  • Partner with industry, academia, and civic groups to co-develop scalable mobility projects and engage residents in shaping and evaluating the future of urban transport.

Accessibility/Inclusive Design:

Proposals may include, but are not limited to solutions that:

  • Prototype inclusive wayfinding solutions, tactile maps, multilingual signage, or AR tools, and test them in community hubs and public spaces.
  • Develop pilots that demonstrate adaptive technologies for mobility and participation, from accessible smart crossings to voice-enabled digital services, studying usability and adoption.
  • Pilot tangible accessibility solutions in public or digital spaces, showcasing and measuring how inclusive design can directly improve daily experiences.
  • Host inclusive design workshops or events where residents, technologists, and advocacy groups co-create and trial solutions, generating insights on best practices.

Digital Tools/Tech Access:

Proposals may include, but are not limited to solutions that:

  • Pilot community-friendly digital platforms, such as digital twins or AI-powered dashboards, that make complex data accessible, engaging, and useful for residents, while testing usability.
  • Develop training programmes and hands-on workshops to build digital literacy, ensuring all age groups and abilities can engage with emerging technologies, and assess impact.
  • Test shared access models (e.g. maker labs, device libraries, co-working hubs) that lower barriers to experimenting with advanced digital tools, studying which approaches scale.
  • Collaborate with schools, libraries, and community centres to co-create demonstrators that showcase and evaluate practical applications of digital twins, AI, and other frontier technologies.

Who Should Apply:

The pilot call is open to academia, public bodies, private organisations or local community members, who have a proposed solution that can address the challenges or themes presented above. 

The proposal must:

  • Offer an innovative solution (products, services or devices) with the potential to scale 
  • Provide new practices/solutions/perspectives that address challenges related to one of the five key themes above
  • Be sufficiently developed, with a fully operational solution that is ready for deployment by March 2026
  • Be within the legal remit and responsibility of Smart Dockland’s main partners operational capacity 
  • Ensure that any solution proposed adheres to all General Data Protection Regulations

Successful pilot leads will be required to provide Dublin City Council with up to date tax clearance information and proof of valid insurance certs. Failure to provide this information when requested may result in the exclusion of the pilot from the open call.

Why Apply?

  • Opportunity to pilot and demonstrate the potential impact and scalability of the proposed solution in a real-world environment.
  • Access to experts from a unique ecosystem with established academic, public and private sector partners as well as an engaged local community.
  • Marketing and promotional support for the proposed solution via the Smart Docklands network.
  • Funding of up to €12.5K (inc. of VAT) is available to support successful pilots.

Application details:

  • Form coming soon!
  • Call opens: Monday, 10th November, 2025, 5pm
  • Call closes: Thursday, 15th January, 2026, 5pm
  • Evaluation of proposals: Your submission will be reviewed by an expert panel drawn from Smart Dockland’s partners. A shortlist of applicants will be selected and asked to make a presentation to the evaluation panel. An update on the call outcome will be provided to all applicants at the end of the review process.
  • Projects to start: March 2026
  • Mid-way review: June 2026
  • Final Evaluation and Close Out: September 2026

Eligibility, Evaluation and Selection Criteria:

All pilot proposals must be completed and submitted using the Pilot Application Template before the closing date. Proposals not submitted using the template or submitted after the deadline will not be evaluated.

All eligible proposals will be evaluated by an expert panel drawn from Smart Docklands’ partners. A shortlist of applicants will then be selected and invited to present their proposed solutions to the evaluation panel.

Pilot proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Impact: Proposals must clearly demonstrate the positive impact of the solution for the Smart Docklands area in relation to the challenges under the four key themes. They should also include details on how impact will be measured.

Scalability: Proposals will be evaluated on their potential for scale, ambition for scalability, and integration with existing services. They should also describe a future business model.

Level of Innovation: Proposals must show a clear element of innovation—either technological or service-based – that addresses an unmet or underserved need. Both incremental and disruptive approaches will be considered.

Team and Resources: Proposals will be evaluated on resource allocation, delivery capacity, and the skills and experience of the project team. They should outline the expected level of support required from Smart Docklands partners, as well as a full cost breakdown for the proposed solution.

User-Centric: Proposals should demonstrate a clear benefit for people living, working, visiting, or doing business in the Docklands area, and show how the solution addresses identified challenges.

Alignment with Smart Docklands Objectives: Proposals will be evaluated against Dublin City Council and CONNECT’s shared objectives to fast-track innovation that addresses local and global challenges through collaboration, testing, learning, and education.

About Smart Docklands:

Established in 2018, the programme is funded by Dublin City Council (DCC) and CONNECT Research Ireland Centre headquartered at Trinity College Dublin. 

Smart Docklands is an award winning programme that supports the adoption of new and emerging technologies in cities. The programme fast tracks innovation that addresses local and global challenges through collaboration, testing, learning, and education.

The project focuses on how technology can be applied across multiple urban environments to address local challenges, support sustainability, and enhance quality of life. It explores effective community engagement and the opportunities and challenges that come with increased digital connectivity and the future of urban infrastructure.

Our education and awareness programmes help participants build the knowledge, skills, and confidence to use technology creatively – fostering collaboration, innovation, and active citizen participation.