DCMS and Innovate UK launch competition for harnessing the internet of things to provide better services for city regions
The government has cast the lure of a £10 million prize to encourage the use of the internet of things (IoT) in the delivery of city-wide public services.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Innovate UK have launched a competition for ideas on how the IoT could be used to support the better delivery of services such as transport, healthcare and energy.
All of the prize fund will go to a single research and development project, which has to be led by a local authority or local enterprise partnership and to demonstrate:
- specific benefits for citizens, the city region and the environment;
- economic benefits for businesses and local authorities;
- appropriate security and privacy features;
- the ability to work across a variety of public service sectors.
The competition is open until the end of September. It is part of a wider £40 million government investment into the IoT announced in March.
Everyday feature
Ed Vaizey, the digital economy minister, said: “The internet of things is rapidly becoming part of our everyday lives. The UK technology sector is renowned for its creativity and pioneering research and development.
“This competition will be instrumental in discovering new connections between city services and their users, and identifying many more advantages that the internet of things could offer.”
This is the second competition on the IoT to be announced in recent weeks. Last month the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council announced that universities could compete for a prize to develop a £10 million research hub to examine the relevant security and privacy issues.
In addition, the Department of Communities and Local Government recently announced a programme to strengthen cyber resilience awareness around technologies such as the IoT.
Image from US Federal Trade Commission, public domain through Wikimedia.
