Tag Archives: Innovation

David Cameron at G8 Innovation Conference

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Besides PM Cameron, David Willetts (BIS Minister for Science and Innovation), Sir Richard Branson, Ron Dennis (McLaren) and Thomas Heatherwick (designer of the new London bus) were some of the speakers that shined at today’s G8 Innovation Conference. Main topics discussed: entrepreneurship and innovation, online education, creativity, science and technology. The conference focused especially on how innovation can be encouraged and where the next life-changing opportunities are for business innovation.

Even though there were many more inspiring talks at this international conference, lets focus on some of the key points that PM David Cameron tried to get across today.

1. Innovation is essential to achieve growth and SMEs are THE vehicle, more than bigger traditional companies, to drive this.

2. We need to make Britain one of the easiest places to start, grow and run your business. At present, starting a new venture here is cheaper than in Silicon Valley.

3. We need to recognise that Government has a significant role to play in today’s landscape. Government wants small businesses to account for at least 25% of public procurement and has cut down on the paperwork and created a quick online application channel allowing SMEs to do so.

4. Data is key. Open data allows transparency, accountability and is therefore important for democracy. The data that the Government has is one of the most valuable assets it has to help the economy to grow. Making open data available is hugely valuable and the importance and relevance for businesses should be promoted across Britain.

5. We need to bring people together to allow entrepreneurship and innovation. Tech City, which grew from 200 tech SMEs in 2010 to 1,500 in 2013, is a key example of a hub that drives the British technological footprint.

6. Education needs to embrace innovation. Curriculums should reflect what the industry needs. The ICT curriculum is a prime example of a ‘transformed’ curriculum and maintaining the science budget rather than cutting it has been a supportive decision.

7. The public should be challenged more to come up with innovative solutions such as cures for Dementia or a carbon free flight from London to New York. Government will stimulate the public more to engage in Government funded competitions.

He ended his talk with the following: “WE SHOULD MAKE SURE THAT GOVERNMENT DATA IS AVAILABLE”. We from Connected Liverpool sincerely hope it will be.

 

 

 

Connected Liverpool @ Innovate UK

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Last week, Connected Liverpool exhibited at InnovateUK 2013, the UK’s
leading multi-sector innovation & trade event for business. Recognised by the Technology
Strategy Board as one of the top 25 most innovative companies in the UK, Connected
Liverpool got invited to showcase its work at the event.

Innovate UK 2013 was a joint venture from the Technology Strategy Board and UK Trade
& Investment. Innovate UK brought together 4,000 people from UK and international
business, Government and academia, with the aim of accelerating UK economic growth
by stimulating business-led innovation and opening up international trade opportunities.
The program of keynote presentations given by Government ministers, business leaders
and industry specialists provided some great insights into the future products and
processes that are in development.

The three days (11-13 March) covered the following topics:
Day 1: Research for Growth: Commercialising the UK’s research base
Day 2: Market and Technology Opportunities
Day 3: Global Growth: starting up and scaling up

The event offered multiple seminars and talks focused on their daily topic. During day 1, the collaboration between the public sector and academics, and between the private sector and academics was a popular topic. The University of Strathclyde from Glasgow was an impressive benchmark in cross-sector collaboration as it attracted the first Fraunhofer investment in the UK after the city of Glasgow became home to the first foreign HQ of the Fraunhofer research centre. Additionally, it hosts the TSB Health Catapult, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, and the Future Cities Demonstrator project. Overall, an impressive list.

The Emerging Technology and Industry programme (ET&I), which was set up in 2010, explained its key investment areas and work over the years between 2010 and 2012 within the spaces of Synthetic Biology, Energy Efficient Computing and Energy Harvesting. For the near future, it will focus on identifying the ‘next’ technologies to feed the pipeline of innovation.

Besides the seminars, the Connected Liverpool stand was a popular place during the event allowing the team to establish great connections with people from all over England and abroad in different sectors. Overall, WE LOVED IT!

 

Three ways of how Big Data is being used today

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Christine Twiford, Manager Network Technology Solutions T-Mobile, explained the three ways of how Big Data is being used at the moment. Big Data, THE buzzword and main topic of conversation in the technology and SME world, is being explored more and more.

According to Christine, Big Data is currently being used for:

  • Discovery
  • Decision-making
  • Persuasion

Regarding the ‘discovery’ aspect, she mentioned that Big Data is used to test data sets and to find ways to define and better understand them. This makes it understandable but also shareable and usable for corporations and individuals because Big Data is analyzed in such a way that it actually starts to make sense.

Secondly, Big Data is being used in decision-making. As soon as data sets are defined and narrowed down to understand the value of them, hypothesises can be created which can then be tested. Through this, real-life scenarios are developed and the influence of big data on citizens (or customers) can be measured.

Finally, after Big Data has been discovered (understanded) and has been used to test hypothesis and pilots, the outcomes can be used for persuasion. The outcomes of the use of big data can be visualised to share findings and push change and innovation.

Christine emphasises the importance of opening up both corporate and government data to drive the economy. In collaboration with academic researchers, government institutions and NGOs, great innovations can be realised. A close collaboration is necessary as “researchers need corporation’s data to do their research and corporations need the academic methods to do their research effectively”. Consequently, a true win-win situation will be realised.

 

 

Technology Strategy Board Think Tank in Liverpool

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Connected Liverpool hosted its second Think Tank for the Future Cities Catapult in Liverpool yesterday. The Think Tank “The Big Data Workshop” was hosted in Liverpool Science Park where excellent meeting facilities, food, and drinks were provided by Open Labs, an organisation supporting local creative technology companies to develop new products and services that capitalise upon global opportunities.

The Think Tank was chaired by Nigel Rix and Richard Foggie from the TSB who opened the workshop with a short speech regarding the progress of the Future Cities Business Plan and the necessity of such workshops/ brainstorm sessions to create innovative ideas that will directly feed into the TSB. This time, the focus was on “Big Data”. Big Data, an increasingly popular topic in society, forms the foundation of innovation. The TSB wants to explore the opportunities within this space to drive innovation and benefit citizens. Therefore, Connected Liverpool organised this workshop to come up with new and creative ways of using data and deriving value from it to drive the economy and enhance citizen’s quality of life.

According to Richard Foggie, “90% of all data was created in the past 2 years. By 2035, we will have the means to create 100% of data instantly.” The challenge however, is to understand and use this data in a way that it could actually create value. This Big Data Workshop was focused on just this. Because of its success, Connected Liverpool plans to organise similar events for the TSB in the future.

 

 

Connected Liverpool @ Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – London

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Yesterday, Monday 6 August 2012, Connected Liverpool paid a visit to London for a meeting in Whitehall at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

At 2 pm sharp, CEO Lee Omar and Innovation Lead Jordy van Kuijk met up with Allan Mayo, Head of Services Policy Unit at Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to discuss the vision of Liverpool to become a Smarter and better Connected city. We asked them to shortly comment on their trip:

CEO, Lee Omar

“It was great to meet Allan Mayo at the department’s contemporary main office at 1 Victoria Street. You could sense a strong positive vibe both on the streets and within the department due to the presence of the Olympics. It was good to exchange ideas and thoughts about how a smarter and better connected city should be realised on various fields. He really is a thought leader in the field of Business, Innovation, Skills and beyond.”

Innovation Lead, Jordy van Kuijk

“Great to meet such a forward thinker when it comes to enhancing citizen’s quality of life and empowering them to achieve more in life by embracing technology and open data. Allan was keen to hear our initiatives and ideas to raise the profile of Liverpool and to make it a better and smarter city to live.”

Connected Liverpool stays at the forefront of turning Liverpool into the first Smart City in the UK. We are eager to consult anyone with expertise in the field who is keen to contribute to making Liverpool a more efficient and more competitive place to live, learn, work and play.

Any ideas? Contact us at jordy@connectedliverpool.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safeguarding the UK’s future water supply- pirates aside

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Keeping our future water supply secure- except maybe from pirates.

It might sound silly that on this little island of ours- surrounded by water- we could find ourselves running out of fresh water in as little as 40 years, but as things are, this may well be our reality. It is estimated that by 2050, the UK will have shortages in our water supply of up to 10,000 million litres a day. Innovations in technology and services will be necessary if we want to avoid this grim prospect.

Ten small/mid-sized companies in the UK stand at the ready to deliver feasibility projects designed to help businesses keep our future water supply covered. If successful, these innovative projects could be applied both here and abroad.

With business investment, the total cost of these projects is just over £1 million, with an excess of £500,000 in funding from the Technology Strategy Board, and a potential £100,000 by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with contributions from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as well.

The aim of these projects is to give businesses the means to develop the preliminary ideas necessary for the creation of innovative new technologies. These may then become larger projects with the potential to create the new markets of the future.

It is estimated that around 1.6 billion people currently live in countries where scarcity of water is a serious issue, making it a clear and weighty environmental issue for the world as a whole.

The Technology Strategy Board intends for this new venture to find solutions for safeguarding our future water supply, but also create a market opportunity by funding companies that can find new, profitable ways of using the water sources we have at present, more efficiently.

The challenge has been set- every company that is successful will be charged with creating new technologies and processes that can either save or recycle 1,000 million litres of water a day.

Of the intended projects, a couple of particular interest are those of Xeros, and Aquamesh:-

-Aquamesh will be using their knowledge of the mining industry to create a low energy sensor network for farmers, which should significantly reduce the amount of water used in irrigation, and potentially increase the yield of crops.

-Xeros, most recently in the limelight for their innovative new washing machine which use virtually no water. Xeros will be working with the leather industry to find a way of cleaning leather without consuming vast amounts of fresh water, and reduce the polluting toxins in the huge billion pound industry.

ADI for the development of next generation virtual power plants

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The Technology Strategy Board, the UK Government’s innovation agency, awarded their match-funded grant to a consortium set up by technology innovation firm the Advanced Digital Institute (ADI). This consortium included industry partners  such as ENER-G, Flexitricity, Smarter Grid Solutions and UK Power Networks. ADI is based in Saltaire, employs 12 staff, and has a customer range from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to corporates. They aim to help digital technology companies innovate.

The £100,000-worth of funding has been won by a project led by ADI to explore the development of “the next generation of virtual power plants”. These centrally-controlled plants will use clusters of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, small-scale generating capabilities at locations such as hospital and business parks, to bolster supply when they are not operating at capacity. The big idea behind this is that they want to help meet peaks in energy demand.

John Eaglesham, chief executive of ADI and managing the initiative, said that ADI s very excited to work together with some of the UK’s key smart grid industry players in addressing the challenge of future energy supply. The project will shore up electricity supply and they will also examine new solutions for low carbon and low cost heat distribution. This could incentivize the UK CHP industry to provide more CHPs in areas where current UK Government incentives have fallen short.

Dave Harson, programme manager at ADI, added to this that this is a completely new business area for ADI. So it’s also quite exciting for them to work in this area where they haven’t previously done any research in.

The feasibility study of ADI will try to find new ways of increasing overall security and efficiency of the electricity system, and decarbonising energy supplies across the UK as demand increases.  The study is scheduled for completion in May 2013.

Mr Harson also said that these assets are already around, they already exist anyway. So we need to tap into those and use them, use that capacity, so we don’t have to invest in other carbon-generating capacities to meet the demand. ADI will also include a large number smaller-scale CHP generators into a virtual power plant because they want to achieve “improves flexibility and greater load-balancing potential to improve resilience of supply and potentially reduce the need to large utility projects”.

Up until 2010, ADI used to receive public sector funding from Yorkshire Forward. But Harson said that business is good for the moment and ADI is now operating independently of any of that type of grant money. The grant they receive from their key partner the Technology Strategy Board is one to fund specific projects, as well as doing commercial work with other customers.

Chris Marsland, technical director at ENER-G, said that the project will investigate the feasibility of using networks of CHP generators to complement and reduce the need for reinforcement of the electricity network. The benefits of this could include greater use of clean electricity supplies, reduced domestic heating costs and less need for electricity infrastructure investments. So the project will benefit the industry and the consumers alike, while reducing carbon emissions.

The project will perform business and technical modeling based on data from UK Power Networks’s London electricity network. They use ENER-G CHP generator and software and a central control system provided by Smarter Grid Solutions. UK Power Network is also leading Low carbon London, a £30m programme that’s largely funded by Ofgem’s Low Carbon Network Fund, to help develop smart electricity networks in Britain.

The innovative Expo 2015 Smart City of the future (video)

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The innovative Expo 2015 Smart City of the future will turn every visit into a unique experience. Smart City visitors will have real time support throughout their journey to the site: electronic tickets, biometric identification, innovative electronic devices, special electronic walls, augmented and immersive reality, visitors’ avatar, foldable tablets and much more!

Connected cities are needed to survive the urban growth

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The UK government wants the UK to be the technology centre for Europe this year. But to achieve this, they will have to look at every part of their economy. One area that is being closely looked at lately is our cities. To drive growth, cities need to be more connected. These highly connected cities need to be driven by super-fast connectivity and they can help drive the British innovation over the next few years.

But if the UK wants highly connected cities in the future, they need to start planning things now. And they already have been thinking about this. An example is the Intel Collaborative Research Institute (ICRI) for Sustainable Connected Cities. ICRI is a joint effort between two of London’s top universities: University College and Imperial College London.

Social, economic and environmental challenges need to be tackled and it’s up to this new institute to investigate how technologies can help tackle these issues. They want London to become a ‘smart city lab’ and they want to create a blueprint for ‘connected cities’ in the UK.

So the researchers of this new institute will investigate some of the new intelligent technologies to use on our cities. An example is the network of sensors that can be used to quickly access data on trends for traffic, pollution and water supply. If they have all this data, they can analyze it to see how well the city is operating. Norway already has a centralized data platform like this called ‘CityData’.

A real-life application of this can be the traffic monitoring. Traffic congestions can be monitored and analyzed to develop smart transport timetabled and alerts. Councils could start to target areas to send more wardens, re-route traffic or provide warnings on mobile apps.

But this can only work when you have a huge amount of data at hand. So the right tools and bandwidth need to be in place first before you can start capturing and carrying these high volumes of information. When the connectivity isn’t restricted to just big businesses but to all of the city, innovation and growth can be stimulated and can flourish.

So using data more wisely is a very good new innovative approach to cities. London is already embracing this with as an example the London Gird for Learning (LGFL). All 33 London local authorities are involved in LGFL, and it’s making the most out of a dedicated public services network. It’s already providing schools with new technologies like e-learning tools such as video conferencing, virtual learning platforms and podcasts.

By 2050, there will be about nine billion people on this world, and most of them will be living in urban spaces. If cities don’t prepare systems to manage every aspect of the way a city operates, they will be challenged in all sorts of ways.  So cities need to start investing today in forward-thinking research and super-fast connectivity that will make the ‘connected cities’ reality.

Connected Liverpool at Ovum Smart Cities Europe Conference 2012

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Connected Liverpool was proud to contribute to the Ovum Smart Cities Europe Conference 2012 which was held in London last week. Jordy van Kuijk of our Innovation Lead, Connected Liverpool, spoke at a panel discussion about “Who Invests and Who Benefits from New Digital City Services?” under the umbrella of creating New Business Opportunities in Digital Cities within the Smart City industry.

The panel discussion was led by Don Strickland, President and CEO at Strickland & Associates and former President & CEO at iPIX, former Vice President at Apple Computer and former Vice President at Eastman Kodak. Besides Don Strickland, the following panelists joined the panel discussion:

  • Gianni Carbonaro, Head of the Municipal and Regional Unit, European Investment Bank
  • Allan Mayo, Head, Business Services Policy Unit, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
  • Kai Hendry, Managing Director at Webconverger
  • Jordy van Kuijk, Innovation Lead, Connected Liverpool

Each panelist was given the opportunity to introduce himself and highlight his interest in the Smart City industry to continue the discussion around the main topic of Who Invests and Who Benefits from New Digital City Services?. We have asked Jordy to comment shortly on his experience within the panel.

“It was interesting to be on a panel with such inspiring figures that speak the same language and have aligned objectives to empower citizens and businesses to make use of the many commercial opportunities that the Smart City industry has to offer.

I was asked to share my vision on how technology can lead to new business opportunities within the digital city framework and specifically clarified the opportunities that are provided to us through mobile technology. Currently, with a world population of 7 billion, there are 5.9 billion mobile phones worldwide compared to the 2 billion internet users, the 1.2 billion personal computers and the 1.7 billion televisions. 16% of those 5.9 billion mobile phones are smartphones, which is predicted to grow to 1 billion smartphones by 2013. On average, people look at their phone 150 times a day (every 6 minutes) and even though not everyone can afford a smartphone, it is expected that the average price will decline from $600 (2011) to $10 dollar in 2020 as production costs will decline drastically.

Currently, 11% of the Americans are already using their smartphone to make their payments through mobile banking and contemporary technology such as NFC, RFID and Augmented Reality are given new dimensions all over the world. Through this, more and more businesses will be stimulated to start operating in this mobile technology space to develop smart applications/ mobile software that can increase people’s quality of life and assist them in their daily activities. The NFC reader that allows people in Stockholm to check-into their hotel rooms without any human contact and allows students at the Arizona State University to enter their dorms and rooms is an example of such a smart application enabled by mobile technology. This opened up a completely new market which will experience significant grow in the upcoming years providing SME’s with plenty of commercial opportunities. As this smart mobile technology will also be taxable, it also opens up a new income stream for the government. It is an exciting space to be in and I would advise any mobile technology entrepreneur to get involved”

One of the topics that was raised by the audience was the difficulty for entrepreneurs to acquire public capital to develop IT prototypes and market their innovative products and services. Entrepreneurs seem to struggle to finding public funding and even though the TSB and other public bodies are offering opportunities for funding, this is often poorly communicated with entrepreneurs.

Moreover, the aspect of ‘Trust’ was emphasized. As we are shifting towards a new era of opening up data and making government data more transparent, citizens are worrying about their privacy. Making public data available will create an important resource for SME’s as it will motivate them to make use of this data for commercial purposes. Nevertheless, clear standards of data usage will have to be established to ensure people’s privacy is guaranteed.

Overall, we were proud to be part of this exciting conference which was perfectly aligned with our own vision within Connected Liverpool. We’ll keep you posted about any new developments that will help us to build a smarter Liverpool City Region!