New Smart Belfast Competition Launches

A new £120,000 Smart Belfast competition has been launched for companies to explore the use of innovative digital technology and data-driven solutions to help manage parks and open spaces.

Details of the 'Amazing Spaces, Smart Places' Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) challenge were unveiled at the ‘Big Data Belfast’ conference at ICC Belfast (Belfast Waterfront) yesterday which explores trends and opportunities emerging in Smart Cities, IoT, Fintech and business analytics among other areas.

SBRIs provide digital and tech-based businesses with the chance to develop new business opportunities.

Belfast City Council and the Department of Justice have been granted £100,000 from the SBRI Challenge Fund for this competition. The Council is adding a further £10,000 and Dublin City Council is potentially contributing £10,000, bringing the total funding pot to £120,000 for this challenge. While the competition will focus mainly on Belfast, there may also be opportunities for businesses to develop proofs of concepts in the Dublin context. Successful companies can win contracts of up to £20,000 for a period of four months.

Councillor Kate Nicholl, Chair of the council’s People and Communities Committee, said: “We were delighted to be part of Big Data Belfast and launching our 'Amazing Spaces, Smart Places' competition.

"Under our Smart Belfast programme, we are committed to working creatively with digital SMEs and our universities to encourage innovation in areas such as big data that addresses real-world challenges in Belfast. We think such collaboration and co-investment is crucial to the future success of our city.

"The competition recognises the importance of our parks and open spaces and how new technologies and data science may well offer new approaches and thinking to open space management."