Junior Ministers Aisling Reilly and Pam Cameron have met the six successful suppliers who will explore innovative ideas and develop new solutions to tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls.
As part of the Executive’s Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls, which was launched in September, two Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Challenges have been developed to find new ways to deal with this deep-rooted problem.
With a priority on prevention, the six suppliers will work on projects that will use data, tech and design innovations to tackle violence against women and girls and to identify solutions to make spaces safer for women and girls.
The Junior Ministers met with the suppliers at an information sharing event in Belfast, held during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which involved a range of key stakeholders including the PSNI, Department of Justice, Translink and local councils.
Junior Minister Aisling Reilly said:
"The Executive gave a commitment to support technological and innovative solutions from the private sector to improve the safety of women and girls.
"The focus of the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls strategy is on prevention and these Challenge projects have that at their very core.
"Tackling the underlying causes of violence, abuse and harm towards women and girls and stopping it before it starts, is vital to solving this problem."
Junior Minister Pam Cameron said:
"The successful applicants bring a wealth of local, national and international expertise to develop solutions to tackle this deep-rooted problem.
"The level of violence, harm and abuse against women and girls is unacceptable and we look forward to seeing new ways of addressing the underlying causes and stopping it before it starts.
"Ending violence against women and girls is a priority for the Executive and these projects reflect that commitment to tackling this important issue."
Notes to editors:
1. The EVAWG SBRI projects are supported by funding from the Department for the Economy (£425,000).
2. The six suppliers awarded contracts are:
Think Pig Ltd
Goggleminds Ltd
Inclutech Ltd
Cranmore Consulting Ltd
Orb Connect Ltd
Politus Analytics
3. The SBRI has two phases and will be expected to follow the standard approach:
- Phase one: Six applicants selected to develop proof of concepts. A total funding package of £425k has been secured from the Department for the Economy (DfE) through its SBRI Challenge Fund for Phase one; and
- Phase two: concepts selected and developed as potential pilot solutions.
4. The competition process is being managed on behalf of TEO by the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) and TEO is the contracting authority in this procurement.
5. At the end of Phase one, which will close at the end of March 25, all, or a subset only of the suppliers in Phase one may be selected to proceed to later phases, based on agreed objective selection criteria and budget availability.
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