Smart Villages- Training Programme: Development of Curiculum and Delivery Methodology

Tender description

A coalition of 20 Irish Local Development Companies, wish to retain services to design the content and high-level format of a training course targeted at rural communities on the emerging goals, methods/ approaches and example of the European Union’s Smart Village concept. The areas of particular interest to the partners are: 1 Biodiversity & Habitat Protection 2 Community multi-service hubs in rural areas: including retail, etc. 3 The Circular Economy / Tourism & SE /Links between Town/ Village and hinterland 4 Networking & Communication tools for Community Groups & Local Businesses 5 Renewable Energy & Emission Reduction The content should focus on • The emergence of the SV concept and the motivation. • The influence the SV concept already has and is likely to develop over EU policy. • An examination of the impact of ‘smartness’ and innovation in the rural context, including the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ and Broadband strategy & policy, and potential for rural areas. • The value of information sharing between stakeholders in a village- and between villages in building ‘smartness’. • The value and opportunities of networking and cooperation in project development, including (but not limited to) the potential of new ICT tools as enablers. • An analysis of the available and most appropriate programme supports to develop ‘smartness’ in a village/ community: e.g. LEADER, InterReg, etc. • Exposition of examples/ case studies of smart village projects in both Ireland and elsewhere in the EU; including an analysis of the key factors and ‘critical path’ to facilitate the project. • A workshop to support the development of participant projects that meet the SV concept definition. • Assessor tool to investigate the particular challenges and opportunities of each local development company area, to determine a baseline for their SV project. • Development of an assessor tool to gauge the ‘smartness’ of a project in Smart Village terms relevant to the baseline for the area.