Industry & Business

Four companies have been each awarded €25,000 Phase 2 funding to develop smart technology solutions to help increase bicycle usage, to gather better data to understand cyclist behaviour and also help deter bicycle theft.

In 2016, Phase 1 of the Smart Dublin Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) competition saw five small businesses receive €12,500 in funding to research and demonstrate the viability of their Smart solution. Four of these companies have now been selected to work with the city council to pilot their solutions over the next three to six months.

The chosen companies and their smart solutions are:

• BikeLook which monitors bicycle usage and deters and detects bicycle theft
• Fluidedge and the Liberty Bell, a bicycle bell that allows cyclists to record actual or perceived obstacles to aid safe cycling in Dublin
• Sense and the See.Sense tracker which allows cyclists gather unique data to help cities design safer and smarter cities for everyone
• Smartcharge and its tracking, logging and data harvesting system for use with bicycles in an urban area

Speaking at the announcement, Lord Mayor of Dublin Brendan Carr said: “I really hope that the successful companies make the most of the opportunity over the coming months to work with the city and develop smart technologies that get more people cycling safely in the city. Phase 2 which comes with €25,000 funding provides the companies with a great opportunity to showcase their products and hopefully to scale up their solutions in cities across the world.”

Kevin Sherry, Enterprise Ireland added: “Enterprise Ireland is delighted to collaborate with Dublin City Council to support the Phase 2 winners. The quality of progress made to date and level of innovation demonstrated by the companies is a testament to the value of this new type of procurement process. Our intention is to scale up the SBIR initiative through 2017 to extend to other public bodies across Ireland.”