It is envisaged that a future decarbonised energy grid will communicate with buildings using smart sensor technology. To prepare for this, the Smart Building Living Lab (SMARTLAB) project is exploring how to make buildings more smart-ready, and is examining the adoption of indicators, such as the EU Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) in Ireland. Implemented as a policy Living Lab, the project will work directly with end users across a range of use cases to generate insights and data to inform SRI policy development. SMARTLAB will install wireless sensor technology in 50 to 100 buildings in Limerick’s Decarbonisation Zone, create a framework for upgrading existing buildings to be smart using DIY toolkits and off the shelf components, and identify the city-scale infrastructure that could be deployed to reduce the costs for building owners investing in the smart readiness of their buildings. Focussed on building capacity for and accelerating the adoption of clean energy innovation, SMARTLAB will demonstrate both energy and non-energy smart services and examine technical and financial barriers to the deployment of smart technologies and services in Ireland’s buildings.
Limerick’s Citizen Innovation Lab, a European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) member Living Lab, will provide the physical infrastructure for Living Lab implementation, and SMARTLAB will build upon frameworks, solutions and institutional knowledge from the Citizen Innovation Lab’s portfolio of projects to date. SMARTLAB will share data and insights amongst public bodies, policy makers and other stakeholders during project implementation as part of its systematic co-creation approach. Results will be disseminated widely to further a low carbon economy in Ireland that is smart, sustainable, secure and affordable.
This Deliverable, Plan for Stakeholder Engagement and SMARTLAB Journeys Including a SMARTLAB Calendar of Events (WP1-D1), sets out the project’s structured approach to stakeholder engagement. Its objective is to ensure the generation of actionable insights and robust data through carefully orchestrated interactions with the three main stakeholder groups – building owners and occupants, policy makers and other stakeholders. It introduces the Living Lab methodology, proposes three main phases in Living Lab implementation – Exploration, Experimentation and Evaluation – and describes the local context for implementation. The structure for stakeholder engagement including SMARTLAB Journeys and a SMARTLAB Calendar of Events is then described. These connect SMARTLAB tasks and objectives with engagement activities, and opportunities for data gathering and sensemaking as part of an iterative process of innovation.
Living Lab implementation will be documented and evaluated in the SMARTLAB Playbook of Engagement Activities and Events I and II – SMARTLAB deliverables WP1-D6 and WP1-D7 – due in months 10 and 23 of project implementation.