Minister McGrath announces 17 projects to be supported under the Public Service Innovation Fund 2022

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD, has today, (Tuesday), announced the 17 winning projects which have been awarded a total of €725,000 from the Public Service Innovation Fund 2022 competition.

The Public Service Innovation Fund 2022 received 83 applications from public service bodies throughout Ireland and across three different categories - digital transformation, citizen support innovation, and green and sustainable initiatives. 

Among the new proposed public sector projects awarded funding are:

• A remote technology system to host video identification parades by An Garda Síochána; 
• A virtual facility that provides court users with a 360 degree audio visual tour of court complexes; 
• A historic and real time data science hub on women in political life, and 
• A project on bottle bank sensors that record the level of capacity left in a recycling container, alerting collection contractors and via an app for the public.

Announcing the results, Minister McGrath said: 

“The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is committed to improving the delivery of vital services to the public. The initiatives proposed in this year’s Public Service Innovation Fund pave the way for new and better ways of working, which will benefit both the organisations and the citizens we serve. 

“I expect that these projects will showcase how reforms can both generate value for the exchequer whilst tackling everyday challenges faced by public service organisations. I am confident that the ingenuity, inventiveness and resilience shown by our public servants throughout the Covid-19 pandemic will continue into the future. I want to congratulate the project teams who engaged with my Department throughout this competition. Our public service needs to continuously challenge itself in order to develop and continuously modernise. The Government’s Making Innovation Real strategy outlines how public service innovations that we deliver can positively shape the lives of our citizens.”

The 17 successful applicants awarded investment under the Public Service Innovation Fund 2022 are: 

1. Digital Transformation
 

• Cork City Council aims to create the first Irish local government Information Sharing Analysis Centre (ISAC) to counter cyber threats and allow two-way sharing of information between the private and public sectors.

• The Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, alongside Women for Election, will create a data hub with cohesive historic and real time information to show the participation of women in political life since the foundation of the state to current day. 

• The HSE will implement the user-friendly National Electronic Research Management System (NERMS) to simplify the research approval process.

• St. James’s Hospital will incorporate a lean design prototype design of two new patient trollies that will improve patient hygiene and to facilitate supporting medical equipment such as endoscopes that will increase the life expectancy of equipment. 

• An Garda Síochána will design a new state of the art electronic identification process platform that will facilitate video identification parades. 

• The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Companies Registration Office will use AI and Natural Language Processing algorithms to extract data in bulk from reports. 

• University College Dublin will establish a Centre for Cyber Resilience Education in Primary and Post-Primary (CCREPPS) as a sustainable and self-sustaining infrastructure to support cyber resilience education for all. 

• Tallaght University Hospital, Trinity College Dublin and Technological University Dublin will partner to develop a new smartphone mobile health app to manage the primary care requirements of patients suffering with chronic pancreatitis. 

• The Defence Forces will create the ‘I’M SAFE – Crew Recording and Operational Readiness Tool’, a digital solution to store updated data for all flight-operating personnel to ensure adherence to international regulation. 

2. Citizen Support Innovation:

• Leitrim County Council will use GIS technology based on ArcGIS to develop a new way of communicating key emergency and non-emergency information to the widest community possible. 

• The Court Service of Ireland will create a 360 Virtual ‘what to expect’ Tour of the Courts to inform and alleviate stress of users. 

• Dublin City Council will establish a BETAhood online platform that will enable local neighbourhoods to request and trial ‘tactical urbanism’ solutions in their area and community. This urban environment project will focus on the rapid deployment of innovative improvements to local neighbourhoods and communities in Dublin.

3. Green and Sustainability Initiatives
 

• Waterford City and County Council will deploy sensors to bottle banks across pilot sites to manage the capacity and send alerts to bin companies when full.

• Donegal County Council will use a specially prepared compost to tackle the challenges posed by Japanese knotweed infestations. 

• Inland Fisheries Ireland will introduce a monitoring software at all electricity and gas meter points to support progress towards a 7% greenhouse reduction.

• The Office of Government Procurement will design a digital tool which would facilitate the use of the Irish Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria by the OGP

• Louth County Council intends to use AI solutions to improve intelligent identification of road defects and provide valuable information on other road assets including traffic signs and road markings.