Following an 'island of Ireland' search in May 2009, 15 talented and passionate advocates were selected by an independent panel including representatives of the British Council’s Challenge Europe partners; Cultivate, Comhar, Business in the Community Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Sustainable Development Commission. In June 2009, a dynamic launch event, set among the rolling Mourne mountains in Northern Ireland, then kick started the second year of Challenge Europe across the island of Ireland. Moving through 4 areas, ‘awareness’, ‘agency’, ‘association’ and ‘action’, the 15 successful applicants began to explore the context of climate change, to think about the challenge, to brain storm ideas and agree action points. Friendships were formed and good craic was had by all!

The pressure was then on, however, as advocates had only 6 weeks to form groups and research ideas before presenting their project pitches to our 'Dragon's Den' panel in the Science Gallery, Dublin on 28 July. Within this state of the art setting, experts from organisations including BT, the Change programme and NI Environment Link listened attentively to the advocates' ambitious proposals and then asked questions, provided feedback, made recommendations and gave the go-ahead to 3 project ideas overall! Final challenges include promoting and facilitating the start-up of carbon friendly enterprises, using food to empower community action to cut carbon (based on the Eden project's Big Lunch model) and promoting urban sustainability through cycling, street lighting and high occupancy vehicle policies and initiatives. Following their nail biting audience with the 'Dragons', the rest of the day was then spent planning project activities in detail and between now and their next meeting in October, advocates from NI and Ireland will forge ahead with further research, planning and initial implementation of challenges.