Dublin 8’s demonstrator proves population health innovations work — and we’re just getting started
Fig. 1: Participants celebrate during a ‘pick-up’ football game, as part of the Smart D8 Pilot ‘D8 Astro Football’ (2025) led by Football Cooperative. Source (Fig. 1 and Feature Image): Football Cooperative CLG (2025).
2025 Impacts at a Glance
- Reached milestone of 21,500+ citizens in Smart D8’s first five years through established connections with community organisations and direct pilot engagements – representing over 40% of Dublin 8’s population
- Launched fifth annual Pilot Call across Positive and Healthy Ageing, Community, and Connected Patient in the Community, with 10% international proposals received
- Selected and delivered three breakthrough pilots focusing on cancer detection, heart failure management, and men’s health through community football
- Welcomed Ana Coughlan as Smart D8 Community Coordinator in collaboration with The Liberties Community Project, strengthening engagements with local organisations across Dublin 8
- Delivered 37 community wellbeing initiatives through 15 new community-organisation collaborations, reaching an additional 400+ participants where people live, work and learn
- Expanded co-design capabilities through collaborations with multinationals, including Boehringer Ingelheim and Vhi Healthcare, embedding citizen-led innovation in digital health
- 100+ registered attendees at Smart D8’s third-ever showcase event, showcasing 2024–2025 pilot projects’ innovation journeys and ongoing community engagement activities
- Recognised nationally with MoveAhead as the overall winner for Citizen Engagement at the Ireland eGovernment Awards 2025
- Further increased visibility through 6,900+ new website visitors, 30,000+ social media impressions and 15,000+ members reached, and growing
2025 marked a defining year for Smart D8 as Dublin 8’s place-based population health demonstrator, bringing innovators and citizens together to demonstrate and validate innovations to tackle real-world community health and wellbeing challenges at scale. We launched our fifth consecutive pilot call, reaching over 40% of the local Dublin 8 community in the first five years. We selected three game-changing pilots: AI technology helping GPs detect cancer earlier, remote monitoring empowering citizens to self-manage heart failure at home, and football bringing men together for better social and mental wellbeing. 400+ residents took part in accessible wellbeing programmes — from International Women’s Day workshops to nature-based learning for schoolchildren — while 100+ registered attendees for our annual showcase to connect, learn, and build what comes next. With new capabilities expanded in co-design with collaborations with multinationals such as Boehringer Ingelheim and Vhi Healthcare, Smart D8 is not just pioneering new cross-sector collaborations with citizens for community health; we’re building the blueprint for population health transformation across Dublin 8, Ireland and beyond.
Validating Solutions for Real-World Impacts
Fig. 2: Pilot representatives convene for the winners announcement of the Smart D8 Pilot Call 2025. (L—R): Conor Murphy (General Practitioner and Aspire Clinical Research Fellow at RCSI University of Medicine & Health Sciences); Ana Coughlan (Community Coordinator at Smart D8); Dr. Jack Lehane (Ecosystem Manager at Smart D8); Steven O’Connell (CEO and Founder at Football Cooperative); and Eamonn Costello (CEO and Co-Founder at patientMpower). Smart D8 selection also includes Eimear Kelly (Digital Health Solutions Specialist at patientMpower). Picture by Beta Bajgartova (2025).
Fifth Pilot Call Breaks New Ground
Smart D8’s fifth Pilot Call reinforced Dublin 8’s role as the go-to place-based demonstrator for validating health and wellbeing innovations that can work with the community at scale, attracting a broad range of applications (10% international) from industry innovators, academic thought leaders, public body visionaries and community changemakers. Following screening, review panel scoring and validation interviews, three pilots moved from proposed concepts to real-world delivery.
🎯 Pilot 1: LISTEN — AI That Helps GPs Spot Cancer Earlier
LISTEN (Leveraging an AI Scribe Tool to Detect Early Non-Specific Symptoms of Cancer) by the PRiCAN research group at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, developed and deployed an AI-supported ‘non-specific symptoms’ approach across four GP practices and 554 consultations — prompting clinicians on potential subtle cancer indicators (such as appetite loss, fatigue, vague abdominal pain) and helping ensure subtle cancer symptoms don’t go unnoticed.
💙 Pilot 2: Smart Heart — Remote Monitoring That Keeps Patients Safe at Home
Smart Heart by PatientMpower, in collaboration with St James’s Hospital Heart Support Unit, supported citizens to measure and transmit real-time blood pressure and weight data through remote monitoring — demonstrating how citizens living with heart failure can stay home safely while clinicians can gain insight into important bioindicator changes for early intervention.
⚽ Pilot 3: D8 Astro Football — Where Kickabouts Become Health-Changing
Using a simple yet powerful hook of ‘pick-up’ football, D8 Astro Football by Football Cooperative engaged 159 citizens through informal, community-led games at three Dublin 8 locations across 11 game nights. Supported by enterprise-academic collaborations with South East Technological University and University College Dublin, the pilot co-designed an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) framework that captures real-time mood, stress and wellbeing data before and after games, supporting a Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework for scale-up.
Community in Action: 400+ Residents and Wellness To Last
Fig. 3: Participants share a moment during a co-design project at the Department of Design Innovation, Maynooth University, in collaboration with Smart D8, The Liberties Community Project and the local Dublin 8 community.
Smart D8 also delivered a range of inclusive wellbeing initiatives that reached an additional 400+ residents across 2025, designed to meet people where they are — schools, community centres, festivals and local spaces. Early in the year, health weeks reached 100+ students and teachers, followed by a Love Your Heart event supporting physical and mental wellbeing, and a Women’s Wellness series engaging 99 women through workshops spanning bone health, pregnancy, menopause and breast cancer recovery.
As we saw our pioneering team member, Giulia Camera, progress to exciting new horizons and open doors for new collaborations in her next chapter, the stellar appointment of Ana Coughlan as Smart D8 Community Coordinator in May, in collaboration with The Liberties Community Project, further transformed Smart D8’s capacity to listen and respond. Paving new paths for the latest programme evolution, active local outreach engaged an additional 15 key organisations and carried out a range of initiatives, including conducting focus groups that helped surface critical themes around isolation and service gaps, coordinating extensive community wellbeing initiatives in Dublin 8 and carrying out tailored community engagement activities for continued participation.
Summer and autumn sustained the momentum through Culture Date with Dublin 8’s Louder Voices songwriting and wellbeing activities, in addition to Dublin City Council summer camp workshops reaching 63 children, and festival sessions engaging 45 community members through accessible movement and wellbeing classes. Workplace wellness and healthy eating workshops further broadened participation, demonstrating that accessible, culturally responsive health initiatives can further lasting impact when carried out with the local community for healthier futures.
Alongside delivery, Smart D8’s community engagement in 2025 generated a strong evidence base through surveys, participant feedback and focus groups, identifying physical activity, nutrition and stress management as key priorities, with accessibility and social connection emerging as critical enablers of wellbeing. Feedback indicated tangible impact, with 60-70% of participants intending to maintain higher activity levels and over 80% expressing interest in continuing these activities regularly. These insights continue to inform Smart D8’s co-design approach and pilot validation processes, ensuring innovation remains grounded in lived experience and responsive to community need.
Growing the Movement
Fig. 4: Helen Gaynor (Head of Community Support Services at the Irish Heart Foundation) presents the citizen-engaged innovation journey of the Smart D8 Pilot ‘Heart of Our City’ (2021), as part of Vhi’s annual CXM Innovation Day at The Digital Hub in April. Additional pilot speakers included Dr. Johann Issartel (Co-Founder and CEO at MoveAhead), Sonia Neary (CEO and Co-Founder at Wellola), and Stephen McPeake (Founder and CEO at Civic Dollars).
In 2025, Smart D8 strengthened its role as a connector, expanding its co-design capabilities with collaborations with multinationals including Boehringer Ingelheim and Vhi Healthcare. In April, Smart D8 supported Vhi’s annual CXM Innovation Day at The Digital Hub by showcasing lessons from previous pilot innovators — MoveAhead, the Irish Heart Foundation, Wellola and Civic Dollars — demonstrating how place-based collaboration helps move ideas toward implementation to deliver meaningful, validated digital health solutions and help citizens live longer, stronger and healthier lives.
In May, Smart D8 collaborated with Boehringer Ingelheim, The Digital Hub, Tyndall National Institute and local Dublin 8 organisations to explore how everyday digital devices such as smartphones, smartwatches and smart rings could help support more personalised and equitable approaches to health and wellbeing. Commenced with a multi-workshop co-design series, the collaboration explored potentials for citizen-led co-design on digital biomarkers using wearable technology, engaging residents, workers and students — opening new doors for a more responsive and inclusive digital health future.
In September, MoveAhead and Smart D8 were recognised as overall winner for Citizen Engagement at the Ireland eGovernment Awards 2025. The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 18th September at UCD O’Reilly Hall, Belfield. The guest of honour at the Awards ceremony was Minister Jack Chambers TD, Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitalisation, who joined on behalf of An Taoiseach.
Fig. 5: Smart D8 Consortium representatives and 2024—2025 pilot speakers convene at the Smart D8 Showcase Event in October. Picture by Josue Alejandro Pena Argueta; The Liberties Training Centre (2025).
In October, Smart D8’s third in-person showcase brought together 100+ registered attendees across all sectors for presentations, roundtables and networking, demonstrating increased impact measures while expanding the engagement infrastructure and evidence base for validating the next-generation population health innovations to scale in Dublin 8 and beyond.
What’s Next: Your Invitation to 2026
As our programme moves into 2026, Smart D8 looks forward to building on this momentum with new collaborations and initiatives, and fresh opportunities for you to get involved — to help validate innovations that can drive lasting, measurable change in population health and wellbeing. Want to be part of Dublin 8’s health innovation story? If you haven’t already, here’s how:
- Subscribe to our mailing list at smartd8.ie for updates on pilot launches, community events and impact stories: https://smartd8.ie/contact
- Follow us on LinkedIn and X (@SmartD8) for real-time news and behind-the-scenes content
X: @smart_d8 https://x.com/smart_d8
LinkedIn: @smart-d8 https://www.linkedin.com/company/smart-d8 - Get involved as a community participant, innovator, or partner — contact us at info@smartd8.ie
Thank you for being part of Smart D8’s remarkable 2025 journey. We are excited for what 2026 will offer. And we’re just getting started…
