A Platform For Change

Supporting change by creating enabling conditions

BWL SE Ireland strives to support existing initiatives to grow into impactful programmes that can lead to long-term systemic change.  The activities grouped under a support platform for change are those that aim to create the enabling conditions for holistic bioregional transformation – as opposed to thematic innovations which are gathered in a portfolio of concepts. Initiatives can move from the platform to the portfolio in either direction.

The platform activities can emerge from ideas suggested by local changemakers and from partnerships with local and national Irish institutions. The platform also is the vehicle for sharing knowledge and ideas from outside the bioregion that may, or may not, find resonance locally.

Weaving lab platform activities

Workshops and events

The core team of Weaver and Regenerative Business Developer listen to the changemakers and innovators in the region, and arrange workshops, visits, exchanges and knowledge networks that might nurture the emerging ideas to make more impact. They also work to build new relationships with key partners and look for funding opportunities that would support collective networked approaches for change.

Examples include many workshops, discussion groups and landscape walks; arranging a group visit to the Herenboeren (Our Farm) concept in The Netherlands; negotiating a project contract to include landscape perspective in the future of sustainable dairy (Department of Agriculture Food and Marine and Climate-KIC). See our Resources page for detailed list and reports from all our activities.

Talks and event collaboration

BWL recognizes that it is through ‘collective impact’ transformation is achieved. We therefore strive to share knowledge of our approach in a variety of fora and seek to establish partnerships with complementary institutions. Examples include partnering with the Irish Landscape Alliance to co-host the Landscape Forum in 2023, lecturing at SETU in Waterford and UCC in Cork, and holding a key-note speech at Champion Changemakers with follow up training for national representatives.

If you would like to invite one of our team to talk at our event, and start exploring the potential to partner, please get in contact.

Externally funded project partnerships

We have successfully applied for funding to enable us to undertake projects that might lead to innovative foundations to enable the bioregion to keep developing and embedding effective practices over the 20 year (at least) time scale we believe this kind of work takes.

See own pages for the following projects (funders in parenthesis)

• Bioregional Mapping (Geological Survey Ireland)
• Bioregional Finance (Bosch Foundation)
• Systemic scaling – community farms (Woka Foundation)
• Mobilizing changemaking – through film (Woka Foundation)
• Landscape Diagnosis and Land-use (SETU)