LONDON 24 March 2013 – Small businesses can win up to £25k each to explore digital innovations in data, as part of a new contest backed by IC tomorrow – part of the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board.
Five start-ups will be selected to work with a range of public and private sector business leaders, including – mobile giant, EE; national institution, the British Library; and Great Britain’s national mapping authority, Ordnance Survey.
Together they will help develop pioneering commercial solutions to a number of specific challenges.
Big data is one of the hottest topics of debate and discussion for business and IT leaders in the UK today. Earlier this year, the government-backed Technology Strategy Board invested up to £4.5m in R&D initiatives that address the technical challenges and business opportunities presented by the huge growth in data.
In George Osborne’s recent budget speech, it was also announced that the Government has committed to providing £42m over five years to create The Alan Turing institute – a new project which will focus on new ways of collecting, organising and analysing large sets of data.
This contest builds on IC tomorrow and the wider Technology Strategy Board programme’s commitment to helping businesses extract greater value from data.
The five challenges and their respective partners, include:
· Processing data efficiently – Ingram Content Group
· Commercialisation of mobile data – EE Limited
· Geospatial data mapping – Ordnance Survey
· Data visualisation and analytic decision making – Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust
· Value of public-domain data – British Library.
Matt Sansam, programme manager at IC tomorrow, said:
“IC tomorrow is committed to helping businesses extract greater value from data and we’re looking to nurture the talented entrepreneurs who can help make that happen.
“It’s not necessary to have an existing app or service, or to be currently active in the data industry. We welcome applications for innovative products, platforms or services from a range of startups and small businesses, even if they are only at ideas stage.”
A briefing event for the contest will take place at BL-NK, London on Wednesday 9 April. The deadline for applications is 12pm on Wednesday 7 May 2014. For more information, please visit:
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Notes to Editors
Digital innovation contest – Data
Key dates:
· Contest Opens – Monday 24 March 2014
· Briefing event – Wednesday 9 April 2014
· Application deadline – Wednesday 7 May 2014, noon
· Finalists notified – Friday 23 May 2014
· Final Panel Session – Wednesday 11 June 2014.