ADAPT-associated projects were among the winners at the 2025 Ireland eGovernment Awards, presented on the 18th September at UCD’s O’Reilly Hall.
Dublin City Council’s GenAI Lab, developed in collaboration with the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre, won in the AI in Governance category. As Ireland’s first local government Generative AI initiative, the lab is setting best practices for the responsible and ethical adoption of AI technologies. Its work is shaping emerging policy and governance frameworks in Dublin and is expected to influence wider standards across the country.
Working directly with Dublin City Council service owners, the Lab identifies challenge areas that could benefit from AI-powered solutions. These include ideas to streamline administrative tasks to improve efficiency, to respond more effectively to customer service requests and provide enhanced support to councillors, as well as enabling more efficient processing and analysis of data across the organisation.
Photo: Khizer Ahmed Biyabani (DCC GenAI Lab) holding the award.
In the Citizen Engagement category, Smart D8 in collaboration with MoveAhead also received awards. MoveAhead, an ADAPT-DCU spinout, began in 2023 as a Smart D8 pilot. Its app and movement-based games helped co-design the “Smart Moves” curriculum with schools and after-school groups in Dublin 8, targeting the growing problem of childhood inactivity.
Through the Smart D8 partnership, MoveAhead’s community outreach was able to engage local schools and after schools partnerships in Dublin 8 such as The Liberties Community Project (TLCP — formerly SICCDA; South Inner City Community Development Association) to co-design and deliver a movement curriculum for children’s motor skills. Through local partnerships, the initiative engaged more than 500 children and families. It equipped teachers and carers with the tools to measure childhood movement, and it showed that movement-focused community programmes can deliver real health and social benefits.
Photo: (L-R) Johann Issartel (MoveAhead), Declan Tuite (DCU School of Communications), Jack Lehane (Smart D8)
Smart D8 itself is a collaborative effort to improve health and wellbeing in Dublin 8, led by The Digital Hub, Dublin City Council, St James’s Hospital, and Smart Dublin. ADAPT supports the programme with research expertise in AI, ethics, data governance, and education.
