What happens when an entire community becomes the laboratory, innovator, and author of its own sustainable future?
The Dingle Peninsula Living Lab is a pioneering initiative on Ireland’s wild Atlantic coast that places local people—farmers, families, and businesses—at the centre of a collaborative experiment in climate action. Rather than being studied by researchers, the community itself drives the research: testing technologies, reshaping practices, and designing pathways towards a low-carbon, resilient future.
Through a process of co-creation, residents of the Dingle Peninsula are working alongside scientists, engineers, and policymakers to reimagine energy, mobility, and agriculture from the ground up. Solar panels on farm sheds, shared electric transport, and digital tools for sustainable land use are just some of the outcomes of this living experiment—each emerging from dialogue, not prescription.
Photo Credit: Valerie O’Sullivan
Unlike traditional models of development imposed from the outside, the Dingle Peninsula Living Lab grows from within. It is a space where local knowledge meets scientific expertise, and where innovation is guided by trust, participation, and shared responsibility. Over the past seven years, hundreds of people have taken part in workshops, pilot schemes, and citizen-led projects that blend practical action with a sense of ownership and pride of place.
The project received an Honorary Mention in the 2025 European Prize for Citizen Science at the Ars Electronica festival, recognised for its inclusive, scalable model of community-led transition.
For this edition of IMPETUS Interviews, we speak with Deirdre de Bhailís about how the project works, why it matters, and what it reveals about the future of citizen participation in climate innovation.
We explore how co-creation can transform abstract sustainability goals into lived reality—and how, in Dingle, a community’s deep connection to land and sea is becoming the foundation for a just and enduring energy transition.
Update:
The Dingle Peninsula was recently named the Irish Times’ “Ireland’s Greenest Place” – A huge congratulations to the entire community!
