Organisations with plans to develop the internet of things obtain support from Digital Catapult
Four regional organisations working on the internet of things (IoT) have won the promise of support from the Digital Catapult – the centre to promote digital innovation backed by InnovateUK – under its IoTUK Boost programme.
Public sector bodies and universities are prominent in the organisations, which have been asked to produce a series of challenges to test the capability of the IoT – the network of data-generating physical objects connected to the internet.
The four to have emerged as partners of IoTUK Boost following a competitive application process are:
- Censis, the Centre of Excellence for Sensor and Imaging Systems, a partnership between several Scottish universities.
- Leeds Data City, which is investigating new ways of using data and which is supported by the city council.
- Cambridge Wireless, which brings together almost 400 tech companies from around the world and will run the Boost programme in Bristol and Guildford.
- Sunderland Software City, in which the city council and University of Sunderland work with private sector partners.
A spokesperson for the project told UKAuthority it has been designed to provide further momentum to the development of the IoT in supporting public infrastructure, and that each partnership will be asked to develop some challenges to provide the foundations of their work.
Although details of the challenges are yet to emerge, they could be owned by local authorities or large companies and the partners are expected to bring together up to 20 SMEs each.
Mentoring and resources
The awards involve funding for each project of up to £60,000, and the Digital Catapult will provide mentoring support and access to its resources and data pool. The work is scheduled to go on until March of next year.
Maurizio Pilu, executive director for collaborative R&D at the Digital Catapult, said the programme will provide the collaboration needed to fully develop the potential of the IoT, in a “coordinated acceleration programme”.
“Our aim is to be fast and agile in the implementation of this programme, also to reflect the speed of innovation required for the UK to grow into a global leader and innovator when it comes to IoT,” he said.
Image from US Federal Trade Commission, public domain through Wikimedia.
