Innovation at the service of the rural world to keep local brains in the villages

"There is innovation in everything. Just last week I was talking to people involved with marinas who are doing very innovative things in the local area. And it is also found in agriculture.” These are the words of Anne Marie McLaughlin, hub manager in Buncrana, a village of 7000 people in the far north of the Republic of Ireland, where leprechauns, sheep, and innovation peacefully coexist.

Anne Marie heads Inishowen Innovation, a technology hub where local brains can develop their full potential. Like Anthony and Aidan, who closed their company in Derry, Northern Ireland a year ago, and launched an underground drone software business here in Buncrana, Subterranean. There are several reasons for this. In particular, Anthony explains, the flexibility of renting premises, but, he continues, “We also have access to various types of government assistance. We are currently working on a grant proposal, and we have officials who come here and you can talk to them and get assistance because of their expertise in the field.”

In fact, the local government puts a lot of effort into the project. County Donegal, of which Buncrana is a part, used a disused administration building to convert into this hub. The building was extended, modernised, equipped, and made available to freelancers and start-ups for the development of their projects. Currently, around 25 companies, including start-ups, SMEs and multinationals, are taking advantage of it through various forms of subscription. A “necessary” project in the area according to John McLauhling, Donegal County Executive, “to bring new, highly skilled and innovative jobs. And the hope,” he continues, “is that people can start small here, grow, and then form a larger company in the surrounding area, creating employment and opportunities.

The creation of the hub is part of the European project ERUDITE (Enhancing Rural and Urban Digital Innovation Territories). A project for which a total of around 2.08 million euro was invested, 1.74 million of which came from the European Cohesion Policy through the Interreg programme, involving seven different regions. Besides Ireland, Finland, Sweden, France, Italy, Slovenia, and Hungary benefited.

Peculiarities of ERUDITE, its innovative methodology SEROI+methodology, in which citizens and local companies are actively involved in defining objectives and analysing the social and economic return on investment. You can find a very clear and detailed explanation of the methodology in the bonus below. Programme manager José Manuel San Emeterio sums it up as follows: "Interventions are analysed not only from a financial, monetary point of view, but also consider the social and environmental values. We work from the very beginning of the project with our stakeholders, consulting them on the possible impact of a certain intervention, and also to get more information on the needs of the community, and then target the intervention to fit those needs.”

Needs such as environmental protection. For example, living five minutes away from the hub like Anne Marie reduces pollution. This commitment was also realised when the hub was restructured: “We have a very sustainable building, we have been very proud of it from the beginning,” Anne Marie boasts. The building has an air-water heating system. Let us recycle as much as possible, generate as little waste as possible. We have installed solar panels on the roof and we also have a charging station for electric vehicles.