The Department for Business and Trade, Challenge Works, the Open Data Institute (ODI) and Smart Data Foundry are looking for “ambitious and feasible” uses of smart data across different sectors of the economy to benefit individuals and small businesses in the future.
The open call Smart Data Discovery Challenge is particularly keen to encourage ideas that cut across sectors, including energy, financial services, retail, transport and home buying. It will also consider other potential data that might be unlocked from other sectors, such as telecoms.
The challenge aims to foster individual innovators and partnerships to develop their initial ideas into feasible concepts with potential to move into development. The “most exciting contributions” will be supported with mentorship and guidance and the best will be rewarded with cash prizes. Teams that take part now will help inform government thinking about Smart Data in the UK and help shape a potential Smart Data Prize in 2024.
Louise Burke, chief executive of the ODI said: “Innovators that take part in the Smart Data Discovery Challenge will join a community of cutting-edge and creative thinkers to help us to shape the direction of a potential Smart Data Prize in 2024. We want creative people from across industry, academia and civil society to join the conversation about opening up services using Smart Data to make people’s lives better, and enrich our national data infrastructure.”
The Smart Data Discovery Challenge’s open call for ideas runs from 26 October to 8 December 2023. Individuals and organisations can propose cross sector solutions that illustrate the potential benefits of Smart Data for consumers, small businesses and wider society. Challenge Works and the ODI will be running webinars to provide guidance and support submissions.
A longlist of ideas will be selected based on published assessment criteria. The Smart Data Discovery Challenge will host a hybrid event in March 2024 to bring together the emerging Smart Data community at which the most innovative cross-sector use case ideas will be pitched. After assessment, the best will be rewarded with cash prizes.
See more on the Smart Data Discovery Challenge here