#HyperCatCity (#HCC), has opened a new accelerator at the Urban Innovation Centre (UIC), run by Future Cities Catapult, in London. Its backers include Innovate UK, the Mayor of London’s Office, the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, BT, Cisco, Flexeye, KPMG, Symantec and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, launched OPDC in April 2015 to drive future regeneration of the site linked to the construction of a High Speed 2 (HS2) and Crossrail Station. It is also designed to deliver up to 25,500 homes and 65,000 jobs.
#HyperCatCity is working with the OPDC to create the smart vision and strategy for the UK’s largest regeneration project. It will also provide smart thinking and solutions to address urban challenges and opportunities across the UK and internationally.
#HyperCatCity’s backers have already been working together on UK and international smart city bids. The #HCC accelerator brings together organisations with deep smart cities expertise and services. Together they will shape approaches to help cities achieve the maximum value across a wide range of themed areas:
- Smart utilities infrastructure
- Access to data
- People-centric cities and community services
- Technology enabled health and social care
- Smart and safe transport
- Smart safety for all
- Smart energy
- Clean and green environment
- Air quality
The #HCC accelerator will also consider approaches to financing, governance and procurement across these areas.
Justin Anderson CEO of Flexeye and a founder of #HCC commented, “The #HyperCatCity Accelerator is bringing together great thinkers and big businesses to shape the smart strategy for the UK’s biggest urban regeneration project. The accelerator also provides a fantastic venue – perfectly located in the Future Cities Catapult centre – for the companies involved to showcase their services and collaborate to deliver value for a wide range of cities.”
Victoria Hills, OPDC’s chief executive officer said: “We are delighted to join forces with #HyperCatCity. Together we will explore and encourage technology, innovation and smarter approaches to help plan, design, build, and finance the UK’s largest regeneration project. In doing so it will help OPDC deliver broader goals to create an exciting and thriving place which is fit for the future, responds to climate, demographic, and urbanisation changes; that is resilient; and is somewhere where people enjoy and wish to live, work, play and visit. Where innovation and smarter technology can be used to deliver an end goal, that is what we’ll be encouraging.”
Scott Cain, chief business officer, Future Cities Catapult added, “We set up the Urban Innovation Centre to be a destination for businesses, academics and city leaders to discuss and develop the cities of the future. It’s a space for urban innovators to work together, so that they can turn human insights and ingenious new technologies and processes into applied products and services that will be deployed in cities around the world. We actively support the new #HyperCatCity accelerator as it aligns with our goals and shares our collaborative approach to the complex and compelling challenge of making cities better for all of us who live, work, learn and move through them.”