Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has awarded £15,000 each to eight smart city projects focused on areas including dementia support, charge points for electric vehicles and reducing social isolation.
The awards have been made under the Civic Innovation Challenge, as part of the Smarter London Together programme, and will enable the recipients to test and refine their ideas with a group of public and private sector partners.
Each of the winners has been matched with a relevant public or private sector organisation and will receive mentoring and support from deliver partner Bethnal Green Ventures, an early stage investor focused on tech for the public good.
They have been selected from more than 100 applicants and a shortlist of 14.
The eight winners are:
- Go Jauntly, a community based walking discovery app that uses an augmented reality prototype to encourage people to walk more. It will work with Transport for London (TfL).
- Connected Kerb, which is developing smart charge points for electric vehicles in a project with National Grid and Shell.
- Pearl Support Network, which is developing software and online tools along with reminiscence sessions to help people with dementia in the black and minority ethnic community. It will work within the Our Healthier South East London Sustainability and Transformation Plan.
- A prototype money email service providing advice on benefits and maximising income, developed by Quids In! Readers Club and supported by Lloyds Banking Group.
- A plan to apply technology to the BuddyHub friendship club for older people, backed by Hackney Council.
- Elemental Software, which is looking to encourage people to take part in physical activity in their local community through referral making and tracking technology. It will work with Ealing Council.
- VU.CITY, an interactive platform built on game engine technology to help housing developers and local authorities understand the implications of changes in the build environment. It has the support of TfL.
- Crossmap, a web tool to visualise and extract insight from geo-localised data dedicated to the built environment, again working with TfL.
Khan said: “Many of London’s advances in the application of data and smart technologies are recognised around the world and I want London to become a global testbed for civic innovation.
“I’m delighted to be able to match the winners of the Civic Innovation Challenge with established public bodies and private companies, and I am confident they will go on to deliver exciting solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing Londoners every day.
“The fact that our city’s tech community is home to some of the most creative businesses anywhere in the world is something of which we can be really proud. We want London to be the world’s smartest city and these dynamic companies have a crucial role to play.”
Image by Mai-Linh Doan, CC SA 2.0 France through Wikimedia
