On 2 November, in sunny Letterkenny, the North-West City Region’s Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) team brought together Donegal County (Republic of Ireland) and the Derry and Strabane Council (UK) in the Public Service Centre of Donegal Council for the launch of the new ICC phase.
The cross-border journey towards sustainability started with the Strategy Refresh Workshop. The CLLR Patricia Logue, Mayor of Derry and Strabane and CLLR Jerry McMonagle, Mayor of Donegal, opened the event by emphasising the importance of working together towards a sustainable future for the entire region. They also highlighted the strong policy efforts regarding sustainability on both sides of the border.
The workshop continued with a presentation of the ICC project by the ICC Team Manager, Dr. Margaret Quinn from ERNACT before the ICC Lead Expert, Saverio Romeo, illustrated the main objectives of the ICC initiative and the centrality of the Local Green Deals (LGDs). During his presentation, he stressed the important role of the business ecosystem across the Region in designing, implementing, and assessing the LGDs in a process of co-creation with local authorities and other key stakeholders.
The event was attended by local policymakers, private organisations and civic groups who were able to reflect on the sectors of interest for the region through several working groups where they assessed specific initiatives for potential LGDs and proposed new ones. The various discussions were lively and full of valuable contributions and interactions. Great enthusiasm for the ICC programme was shown by the participants, with a particular emphasis and interest placed on the energy sector amongst all areas discussed.
Following the success of the event, the ICC city team’s ambitions were boosted meaning the team decided to apply for the Advanced track, hoping to deploy several LGDs over the ICC programme. This open and collaborative approach will be used in future meetings for the Region as it embarks on its ICC journey. Whilst the North-West City Region is faced with a unique challenge of working across two countries, the team looks forward to embracing this challenge and using ICC to push forward its cross-border cooperation to make its ICC journey a highly successful one.
More information on the event can be found here and a short video showcasing the meeting can be found here.
This article was shared by the North-West City Region and supported by the ICC Communications Team. The ICC welcomes the city updates and looks forward to seeing how the North-West City Region’s unique journey continues throughout the programme.