The 9 winning innovative urban solutions chosen in the Sheffield Smart Lab programme have begun their demonstration phase through test projects in Sheffield. The programme, launched in late June 2015 and run by Sheffield City Council, Amey and the Ferrovial Services Centre of Excellence for Cities, has the objective of identifying and testing the best innovative solutions to address two major challenges that Sheffield faces: to ‘energise the city centre’ and to ‘support people to live independently.’ This initiative is open to entrepreneurs and start-up businesses around the world and has the objective of converting Sheffield into an urban laboratory in the field of innovation, focused on its people.
Drive for urban entrepreneurship
The 9 winning solutions - selected from more than 50 proposals received from 10 different countries - are taking the opportunity to test their solutions in the specific context of Sheffield and showcase the results to customers. Earlier in the year, the start-ups had the opportunity to participate in an ‘incubation and acceleration’ programme, where they developed their idea and business model in an innovation centre, supported by both the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. As well as this, all winning solutions will also be included in Ferrovial Services’ Innovative Solutions Catalogue.
Winning solutions:
Helping people to live independently:
Energising the city centre:
Commitment to urban innovation
Sheffield Smart Lab is part of Ferrovial Services’ aim to support forward-thinking cities in developing effective innovation focused on citizens, enhancing urban services using the most innovative solutions, and contributing to the development of society by, for example, supporting entrepreneurship. Other recent examples of collaborative innovation programmes with a similar profile are Madrid Smart Lab, Changify, The Urban Solutions Project and Cities Open Challenge.
For more information on the programme: http://www.sheffieldsmartlab.co.uk
Related links: https://blog.ferrovial.com/en/2015/10/sheffield-smart-lab-creating-a-city-of-innovation/