07 February, 2020

The Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence welcomed SilverSMEs project partners from Slovenia, France, Poland, Spain, Portugal and Sweden to CIT on February 5th and 6th. The Hincks team, led by Aisling ConwayLenihan, included Helen McGuirk, John McAleer, Lish Seoigh, Haizea Vianez Rodriguez and Amaia Carretero.

Dr. Breda Kenny, Head, School of Business, opened proceedings on February 5th. Good Practices of SMEs supplying the Silver Economy were presented by EU partners with the objective of aiding the design of regional action plans and influencing regional policies.

In the afternoon, the partners visited Courtmacsherry Community Shop Co-Operative and Bandon Age Friendly Town. The shop in Courtmacsherry was submitted as a Good Practice as part of a European Interreg project and is an example of a community initiative supporting local micro enterprises operating in the Silver economy. The Good Practice is now published on the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform, which is available to policymakers around Europe. The EU delegation also visited businesses in Bandon involved in their ‘Age Friendly Town’, a Cork County Council initiative.

The West Cork People covered the visit in their issue February 7 – March 5, 2020, Vol XVI, Edition 213. The article is available here.

The title of the SilverSME conference was ‘Business opportunities linked to the dependent ageing population’. Opened by Mr. Gerard O'Donovan, Head, Faculty of Business and Humanities, speakers at the conference included Lucie Cunningham, THE HomeShare; Muireann Hickey and Jonathan Mullane, StrydeTech; and James Hegarty, CSO. James presented data on an ageing population from an Irish and European perspective. THE HomeShare matches unrelated people to live together for mutual benefit. StrydeTech is a student innovation and as part of their final year of studies in CIT, Muireann and Johathan created this modern mobility device that allows people to walk, sit and stand independently.

The conference proved to be very successful and was attended by representatives from research institutions, SMEs, policy makers and older persons.

The partners also visited both the Nimbus and Rubicon Centres.

The next interregional meeting will take place in Sweden in September 2020.

Photograph courtesy of Darragh Kane.

For more information on SilverSMEs click here, contact us at hincks@cit.ie or visit the SilverSMEs website at http://www.interregeurope.eu/silversmes/