VRTI wins Civically Engaged Research Award for 2026

The VRTI Team were delighted to be awarded the Engaged Research Award for 2026 for a public history project titled ‘Mapping Memories’. Provost Dr Linda Doyle presented the award to Co-Director Ciarán Wallace at an enjoyable event on 5 December, pictured above.

Digital exclusion remains a feature in the lives of a number of older people in Ireland, limiting access to public services as well as to social connection and hobbies. The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI), which regularly presents public events, sometimes sees the enthusiasm of older people for the VRTI tempered by a feeling that they lack of digital skills – that the online realm is not for them.

‘Mapping Memories’ is responding to this challenge in a participatory way. Rather than offering conventional digital training, the project invites older people to become co-creators of a local history resource: a richly annotated map of the neighbourhood as they remember it. Their stories, experiences and sense of place will be layered onto historical maps, creating a shared portrait of community life across decades.

The methods, materials and lessons learned will be shaped into a practical toolkit that community groups across Ireland can use to run their own memory-mapping projects. Grounded in both academic and community knowledge, the toolkit aims to build digital confidence by connecting technology with people’s lived experience—using curiosity, storytelling and collaboration as gateways into the digital world.

For the project, a Public History researcher will work with a group of older residents to explore maps of a particular area. Together, they will create a new digital layer of memory and this will lead to the creation of a toolkit so that similar projects can be rolled out anywhere in the country.

Each year, the Provost presents the four winners of the Civic Engagement Awards. The winners have proposed four projects for 2026 that will draw together different communities to tackle wider societal challenges.