Smart D8 Opens Doors to Health and Wellbeing Innovators for Sixth Consecutive Year

• Following five years of success, the Smart D8 initiative has a strong record supporting innovators with 19 impactful and scalable pilots delivered

• Up to three pilot projects to share in up to €30,000 fund as part of the 2026 initiative

• Smart D8 is a consortium initiative led by The Digital Hub, Dublin City Council, St James’s Hospital and Smart Dublin

Smart D8, Dublin’s first smart district dedicated to addressing community health and wellbeing needs and located in the heart of Dublin 8, has officially launched its sixth open call for pilot projects.

Since October 2020, the Smart D8 partnership has connected innovators with citizen expertise through enterprise, healthcare, academia, government and other areas of the public sector, collectively aiming to address health and wellbeing challenges identified by the local D8 community.

Now entering its sixth year, this year’s call focuses on innovative pilot projects across three key themes:
• Nutrition
• Social Connectedness
• Workplace Wellbeing

Up to three pilot projects will each receive up to €10,000 in funding, but crucially will be supported to validate their innovation with real users. Those selected will have the opportunity to trial new and emerging innovations for illness prevention with a general population to measure and evaluate their population health impacts – demonstrating their potential to positively impact people’s lives locally, nationally and internationally.

Since its inception, Smart D8 has established strong community connections through outreach with residents, businesses, schools, local organisations and networks to understand health and wellbeing priority areas and needs. Engaging with service providers, innovators and entrepreneurs to trial and test new products, services and ideas, the partnership works to matchmake innovative content and technologies with community networks and demonstrate their impacts on population health to scale.

Operating through funded pilot calls and partnerships, the Smart D8 testbed supports access to local knowledge and expertise and facilitates the development of innovative approaches that can enhance health and wellbeing with and in the local community.
Through the combined effort of pilot projects, local workshop initiatives and established engagement with existing community networks, Smart D8 has reached over 21,500 citizens living and working in Dublin 8, over 45% of the 45,000-strong population.

Smart D8 is led by The Digital Hub, Dublin City Council, St James’s Hospital and Smart Dublin. They are joined by Tyndall National Institute, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, National College of Art & Design, the Guinness Enterprise Centre, Health Innovation Hub Ireland and the HSE in this unique collaborative initiative.

Applications will close on Thursday, 26th March at 11pm. For more information on Smart D8 and to find out how to apply for the latest round of pilot projects, please visit https://smartd8.ie.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Ray McAdam, said:

“I am proud to see our city continue to lead with purpose, placing community wellbeing, innovation and sustainability at the centre of how we shape Dublin’s future. Smart D8 represents the very best of civic collaboration, bringing together innovators, researchers, public services and citizens to test ideas that improve everyday life. By grounding innovation in evidence and in lived experience, it is building a model for healthier communities that can be scaled across our capital and beyond. I strongly encourage innovators with bold, practical and evidence-led ideas to step forward and partner with us. Together, we can demonstrate how place-based collaboration delivers real change for Dublin 8 and sets a standard for cities everywhere.”

Speaking on the opening of pilot applications, Smart D8 Ecosystem Manager, Jack Lehane, said:

“As Smart D8 moves into its sixth year, we take great pride in the scale of engagement so far, and are especially motivated by the opportunities that lie ahead. In 2026, we will continue to build on this momentum by focusing on themes that have the greatest potential to identify and validate population health solutions, including nutrition, social connectedness and workplace wellbeing.
The partnership provides changemakers with a chance to connect their innovations with citizens in real-world community settings, and demonstrate their ability to scale to wider populations. We strongly encourage organisations from any sector that have population-scale innovations in these areas to apply, and look forward to seeing more projects deliver measurable impacts and outcomes across the Dublin 8 community and beyond in the year ahead.”

Ana Coughlan, Smart D8 Community Coordinator, added:

“At Smart D8, our mission is to improve community health and wellbeing through meaningful collaboration and innovation, while amplifying the efforts of those already committed to making a difference in people’s lives. We have built a strong network of community-centred initiatives that involve residents, workers and students to support healthier lifestyles, and this year’s themes are chosen based on this outreach. We will continue to expand our impact by welcoming pilot proposals that focus on innovative approaches to illness prevention, helping to create a stronger, healthier and more connected Dublin 8.”

ENDS

Issued by Murray on behalf of Smart D8.

For further information, please contact:

Richie Oakley, Murray, roakley@murraygroup.ie, 087 245 1824

Amy McMahon, Murray, amcmahon@murraygroup.ie, 083 896 3106

Notes to Editors

About Smart D8

‘Smart D8’ is a real-world population health demonstrator providing opportunities for indigenous and international innovators to investigate how smart technology and innovative approaches can improve health and wellbeing with an urban population.
Since October 2020, Smart D8 has brought together innovators and the Dublin 8 community with a diverse range of entrepreneurs, academics, government, healthcare providers and public bodies in a partnership model to demonstrate population health and wellbeing solutions to scale.
Smart D8 is led by The Digital Hub, Dublin City Council, St. James’s Hospital and Smart Dublin. They are joined by Tyndall National Institute, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, National College of Art & Design, the Guinness Enterprise Centre, Health Innovation Hub Ireland and the HSE in this unique collaborative initiative.
Smart D8 is focused on finding innovative solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of nearly 45,000 people living in the Dublin 8 region of Ireland’s capital city. Through funded pilot calls and partnerships, Smart D8 facilitates the design, testing and development of future products and services, showcasing their potential to positively impact people’s lives nationally and internationally.
The positive impact of Smart D8 is evident through its enabling of successful pilot projects demonstrated with the local Dublin 8 community. The initiative has supported a total of 19 pilots to date, including Menopause and the City, a menopause education initiative which empowered over 1,500 citizens to manage their symptoms; MoveAhead, which pioneered a motion analytics technology to improve children’s movement skills and enhanced the skills of more than 500 Dublin 8 schoolchildren; and D8 Astro Football, which registered 161 participants through weekly ‘pick-up’ football games and a Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework for improved physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
Smart D8 was shortlisted for HealthTech Innovation of the Year in the Public Sector Digital Transformation Awards 2023, globally recognised as Innovation Finalist at the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) 2023, awarded for Innovation in Public Administration by the European Public Sector Awards (EPSA) 2023-24, Digital Community finalist at the .ie Digital Town Awards 2024, and most recently overall Citizen Engagement winner with MoveAhead at the Ireland eGovernment Awards 2025.
For more information on Smart D8, visit www.smartd8.ie.