Three Irish organisations among Europe's top 100 digital pioneers
Three Irish organisations have been recognised as among Europe's top 100 digital champions.
The Financial Times newspaper released the list today which details the people and companies leading Europe’s growth in five categories.
Those recognised were blockchain platform Aid:Tech, Code Institute, an educational technology start-up, and the housing and homeless charity, Peter McVerry Trust.
Dublin software company Aid:Tech is mentioned for its use of technology for social challenges.
The company was also successful at The Irish Times Innovation of the Year Awards last night where it was crowned the overall winner.
Aid:Tech was the first in the world to deliver international aid using blockchain technology when it helped to distribute relief among Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon on behalf of the Irish Red Cross.
The technology enables welfare, donations, remittances and healthcare to be digitalised and tracked.
Code institute was recognised for its technology training, as it teaches coding to people who want to change careers and has recently expanded to teaching refugees and asylum seekers.
The Dublin-based company was the first in Ireland to launch a coding bootcamp.
Homelessness charity Peter McVerry Trust was listed as a pioneer in using technology for social challenges.
It created a smartphone app to track vacant housing as part of their Reusing Dublin project.
Francis Doherty, Head of Communications at Peter McVerry Trust said: “We are delighted to have been recognised by the Financial Times, Google and global digital experts for our digital work.
At Peter McVerry Trust we believe that it is imperative that NGOs embrace digital opportunities to progress their mission statements.
“The Reusing Dublin project enables us to identify new housing projects in Dublin that no one else is looking.
"By targeting long term vacant buildings we are securing more housing for social housing purposes in high demand and need areas.
"This will hopefully result in less homelessness and fewer communities blighted by dereliction and vacancy, which are really positive social outcomes resulting from using digital technologies," he said.
