The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is to invest up to £10 million in a single collaborative R&D project to demonstrate the capability of the Internet of Things (IoT) in a city region.

This competition (delivered by Innovate UK on behalf of DCMS) is part of a wider £40 million government investment in IoT announced in March 2015. There will be a briefing event on the 24th July at the Europa Hotel in Belfast.

The aim of this demonstrator is to show how the large-scale deployment of IoT – where everyday objects are connected to a network in order to share their data – can benefit citizens by offering environmental improvements, economic opportunities, and more efficient and effective delivery of services such as transport, healthcare and energy.

Projects must be collaborative and led by a local authority or local enterprise partnership (or an equivalent body outside England). Projects should involve at least one local authority, one local enterprise partnership and several businesses.

It is expected that one project of mainly industrial research will be funded. Local authorities, public bodies, third sector organisations and academic institutions could receive up to 100% of their eligible project costs (up to a maximum of 30% of total project costs), small businesses 70%, medium- sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%. The maximum grant available is £10 million, and the project is expected to run for up to two years.

This is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on 13 July 2015. The deadline for registration is at noon on 23 September 2015 and the deadline for applications is at noon on 30 September 2015.

Looking for partners to work on your project? Join the IoT cities Demonstrator group on LinkedIn or contact the Knowledge Transfer Network on digitaleconomy@ktn-uk.org

Supporting documents

Scope

The demonstrator must involve IoT and have:
  • specific benefits for citizens, the city region and the environment
  • economic benefits for businesses and local authorities, both during and after the period of the demonstrator
Applicants must provide evidence to demonstrate and quantify these benefits. A city region is defined as a central urban area with a population of at least 125,000 and its surrounding commuter belt.
In addition, the demonstrator must include:
  • appropriate user experience and security and privacy features, designed and implemented from the start
  • a plan for scale during, and scalability after, the demonstrator, which must also include sensor deployment
  • coverage of multiple, diverse services across different sectors, for example social care, transport and housing
  • interoperability using open standards and protocols where applicable. The HyperCat specification must be used (see www.hypercat.io)
  • the sharing of data and analysis both during and after the demonstrator, using the capabilities of the Digital and Future Cities Catapults and/or other platforms
  • an existing business incubator as a consortium partner to facilitate growth and knowledge-sharing with SMEs

Note funding is only guaranteed for the 2015-16 financial year (ending 31 March 2016) and further funding is subject to decisions in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review.