Digital Catapult announces Sensor City as IoTUK Boost partner – driving forward Internet of Things innovation
We are delighted to announce that Sensor City has been selected as one of six partners to help lead on the development of IoT enabled services and applications for UK SMEs and entrepreneurs ( http://bit.ly/2gW5clT ). Working in partnership with Stream Technologies (http://www.stream-technologies.com), we will be implementing a low power Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) within the Liverpool City Region to enable businesses and entrepreneurs to develop and test Internet of Things (IoT) products and services in a live environment. We are now actively seeking companies interested to access the network and will shortly announce a series of events to provide further information on how you can engage with us.
IoTUK Boost is funded by Government as part of the IoTUK research and innovation programme, underlining the importance of IoT for the UK’s digital economy. As part of IoTUK Boost, we will be holding meet ups, open calls and training workshops to stimulate engagement with the test network for a minimum of six months. Our aim is to work with at least 10 SMEs or entrepreneurs, to help them to bring early stage IoT products and services to a commercial prototype stage, or early market release.
Boost will build on the launch in September of Digital Catapult’s Things Connected, which focused on equipping London with the necessary infrastructure to innovate with the IoT by providing 50 LoRaWAN base stations across the city to establish the UK’s largest IoT LoRaWAN network. Success in the Boost initiative allows Sensor City to work within the Liverpool City Region to allow companies to explore and take advantage of the benefits to be brought by moving into the digital age and adopting industry 4.0 approaches. The pilot will sit alongside the ERDF-funded LCR 4.0 project (http://lcr4.uk/ ) which launched on the 30 November and which provides funded support for companies looking to increase productivity and de-risk innovation.
As part of the Boost initiative, we will be able to provide SMEs and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to become quickly productive and innovative through the use of LoRaWANs. With longer range, decreased power requirements and lower cost than a mobile network, LoRaWANs enable a much wider range of IoT applications.
Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said: “The Internet of Things stands to benefit a great number of people as well as the wider economy. Due to the strong interest shown so far in this initiative, we have doubled the amount of funding available to give more entrepreneurs the opportunity to test their products. Boost will help to provide local infrastructure and support for promising IoT businesses to innovate and bring exciting new IoT products and services to market”.
Dr. Jeremy Silver, CEO, Digital Catapult, said: “Internet of Things is no longer a vision of the future, it’s here and transforming the world around us. By 2020 the IoT marketplace in the UK could be worth £20bn. Boost has a key role to play in making the most of this opportunity, and we are delighted to be working with our six selected partners from across the UK to achieve this. For the potential of IoT to be truly realised it is vital that we see regional IoT industry growth, and develop applications relevant for the local community.”
Dr Joanne Phoenix, Business Development for Sensor City, said: “We are delighted to be part of the IoTUK Boost pilot and to be able to offer our developing ecosystem of businesses and entrepreneurs the toolset to allow them to explore the benefits of IoT. I see this as an essential part of the Sensor City offering and it really does allow us to ‘do what it says on the tin! We are now looking for companies interested to access the network and become early adopters. We expect competition for support to be fierce and I really encourage companies to get in touch with us as soon as possible.”
Mohsen Shakoor, Strategic Partnerships, Stream Technologies, said: “Stream are delighted to deploy IoT-X’s LoRaWAN™ solution to bring Liverpool to the Internet of Things. This network will allow enterprises, and the public, to connect sensors and gather real-time data, including location information without the need for GPS, with a battery life span of up to 10 years.”
Nigel Chadwick, CEO, Stream Technologies, said: “Stream are seeing a tremendous increase in adoption of IoT-X in smart city deployments, due to its granular control of IoT networks – including LoRa®, cellular and satellite. Liverpool will have the advantage of IoT-X’s cutting edge technology to enable low-cost and long-range connectivity.”
About IoTUK
IoTUK aims to advance UK competitiveness in IoT and increase the adoption of high quality IoT technologies and services across the UK.
About Digital Catapult Digital Catapult is here to help grow the UK digital economy by working with SMEs to help them grow and scale faster and helping larger corporates in their digital transformation. It does this through programmes of collaboration and open innovation, by bringing academic leading edge expertise into the mix combined with the organisation’s own business and technological expertise.
Find out more at www.digitalcatapultcentre.org.uk