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Call for Tech entrepreneurs to help the capital’s major infrastructure providers map their underground assets

Note: This press release is over six months old and the details may have been superseded. Please contact the Press Office for the latest information.

BRE, in partnership with the Mayor of London, is encouraging small businesses and entrepreneurs to develop new forms of technology that could help the capital’s major infrastructure providers gain a shared understanding of the location and state of their underground assets.

Winners of a competition announced today (18 March) will earn the opportunity to pitch their innovations directly to organisations involved in providing key infrastructure across the capital, including UK Power Networks, National Grid and Thames Water.

The organisations are members of the Smart London Infrastructure Network, created by the Smart London Board in collaboration with the London Infrastructure Delivery Board with the aim of supporting the Mayor of London’s vision for ‘smart city’ innovation. Infrastructure Network members are looking for smart solutions using digital technology which will allow them to accurately identify the location of their own and others’ underground assets and/or determine their condition. Solutions could be software, hardware or a combination of the two.

Examples might include:

  • Smart technology which links mapping platforms with survey data to provide an accurate shared record of underground assets
  • Apps which provide an augmented reality view of the assets
  • Shared platforms that allow access to real time information on asset location and status.

Matthew Pencharz, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, said: “This competition provides a unique opportunity for both innovators and entrepreneurs to pitch ideas to some of London’s key infrastructure providers to meet the ongoing challenges of living in a big world city.”

Innovation Director of BRE, Cathy Crawley, said: “We are working directly with organisations delivering large-scale infrastructure in the capital, to bring forward innovative smart technology which will help infrastructure providers share information leading to improved safety and reduced costs and disruption.”

Individuals, sole traders, small businesses, and research and academic institutes, as well as public sector bodies and large companies, are all eligible to compete for the opportunity to pitch their innovation to senior decision makers from organisations providing key infrastructure across London.  The deadline for submissions is Friday 29 April 2016.

NOTES TO EDITOR

  • Winners will be invited to pitch their innovation directly to the Infrastructure Network members, who represent some of the largest infrastructure providers in London. Infrastructure Network members are actively looking for new and innovative solutions to their real world challenges, which could be trialled in situ
  • Winners will be profiled by BRE and may be included in the Mayor of London’s Office, and other partner, publicity
  • All entrants will be profiled on a pan European innovation database, run by partner Synoptica, where buyers of clean technology are actively looking for innovative solutions.

Further details on how to enter the competition are available here  For more information, please contact Jackie Sharp at BRE:Tel: 01923 665249  email: [email protected]

About BRE: We are a world leading building science centre and the authority on all aspects of the built environment. We generate new knowledge through research that is used to create products, tools and standards that drive positive change across the built environment. We enable our government and private sector clients to meet the environmental, social and economic challenges they face by delivering higher performing, better quality, safer, more secure and more sustainable products homes, buildings and communities. We are owned by the BRE Trust, a registered charity, which funds research and education that advances knowledge of the built environment.  We are committed to building a better world together. We are BRE. www.bre.co.uk.

About the Smart London Infrastructure Network: The Smart London Infrastructure Network has been created to support the Mayor of London’s vision for ‘smart city’ innovation that addresses resource pressures whilst creating new economic and research opportunities. It is a key commitment of the Smart London Plan, developed by theSmart London Board and launched by the Mayor of London in December 2013.