About the Living Lab
The Living Lab looks at how digital tools enable collaboration between colleagues and partners, educators and students, and producers and consumers, in the context of a community enterprise centre in Cloughjordan Ecovillage in rural Ireland, and how these changes contribute to local livelihoods, rural regeneration, local supply chains, and reducing carbon emissions. It also looks at how these factors combined contribute to regional resilience (defined as the ability to recover from shocks caused by pandemics and environmental, economic and political factors).
Living Lab coordinator: Cultivate Living and Learning
Domain: Rural
Focal question
Objectives
- To enable and support remote work where possible, to reduce travel in line with the global need to cut fossil fuel emissions, and to increase opportunities for rural-based livelihoods.
- To strengthen local supply chains, thereby supporting livelihoods for local producers, artisans, and service providers, reinvigorating the local economy, reducing emissions, and supporting regional resilience.
- To support citizen-led innovation, peer to peer exchange, and global communities of practice.
Main stakeholders
Local organisations: Cultivate, WeCreate Enterprise Centre, Sustainable Projects Ireland, Cloughjordan Cohousing Cooperative
Local business: Cloughjordan FabLab
Food outlet/short supply chain: loughjordan Community Farm, North Tipperary Online Farmers’ Market
Peer to Peer networks/Communities of Practice: FabLab Network, Open Food Network, Community Supported Agriculture Network, ECOLISE
Key documents
Policy brief: Supply chains and local livelihoods
National Policy Analysis (available soon)
Practice Abstract: Digitalisation & Resilient rural Livelihoods in Cloughjordan ecovillage