‘IoT for Greener Cities’ is a new challenge launched as an initiative of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. It targets finding and developing cutting edge technologies, based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and other IT innovations, which could be easily introduced in our homes, buildings and cities to reduce CO2 emissions and improve local air quality.
The competition is open to any small team with an idea that they think can be scaled up to help decarbonise and improve cities’ environmental footprint. After a voting stage, up to 15 finalists will receive six weeks of mentoring from experts to overcome technical or business related challenges.
The finalists will then have the opportunity to present their idea to a jury of experts from a range of European companies and public stakeholders, including the European Union and the World Economic Forum, with the winning team in each category receiving 6 months of further technical support, visibility within the partners’ networks and €10,000(US$ 10615.50) worth of prizes.
The competition follows the success of the first “Decarbonathon” competition that saw 230 teams from all over the world compete in the wake of the Paris climate change negotiations, COP 21, to find promising new ways of reducing CO2 emissions. The winners received significant support to help scale up their innovation.
The “IoT for Greener Cities” new challenge is looking for IT-based innovations that particularly utilise the potential of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT): the emerging area that makes use of interconnected smart devices to better understand and tackle challenges such as climate change. The competition comprises of three categories: smart solutions for households, smart solutions for energy-efficient buildings, and sustainable mobility in an urban environment.
In addition to the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, the competition is facilitated by ENGIE, the Centre for Carbon Measurement of the UK National Physical Laboratory, Climate-KIC, and Energy Ville – a European Research centre focusing on energy-efficient buildings and intelligent networks for a sustainable urban environment.
The partners will provide support and mentoring for applicants, to help design and speed up the commercialisation of these new solutions. The main phases of the competition are:
- Online registration of the teams until March 22nd 2017.
- Selection and publication of the best 15 ideas on April 4th.
- A 2 day event in Brussels on 15 May for the finalists to prepare their pitch to be presented to the jury on May 16th and followed by the announcement of the winners.
Isabelle Kocher, ENGIE CEO, says: “With our partners we are fully committed to support for a second year this global world initiative of the Young Global Leaders. Within ENGIE we believe in a 3D revolution of the world of energy, being more decentralised, decarbonised and digitalised. In this regard, new data based solutions and IoT will trigger a better use of energy with a positive impact on the environment.”
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