TSB to provide funding for ‘city of the future’
Cities across the UK have been invited by the government to compete for £24million to demonstrate how they could integrate their transport, communications and other city infrastructure to improve the local economy, increase quality of life and reduce impact on the environment.
The funding, from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), will be awarded to the city or urban area in the UK which submits the best proposal for a large scale 'future cities demonstrator', showing how the city's multiple systems will be integrated and how challenges in the city will be addressed.
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said: "People and technology are developing and changing all the time, and we can't expect our cities to stand still while that is happening. Cities face major challenges such as changes in population and demographics, congestion, waste and pressure on resources and services. This underlines the need for our future cities to have high quality, integrated infrastructure to meet these challenges."
The project will enable businesses to test new solutions for connecting and integrating individual city systems, and will allow cities to explore new approaches to delivering a good local economy and excellent quality of life, whilst reducing the environmental footprint and increasing resilience to environmental change.
Iain Gray, chief executive of the TSB, said: "In the future there will be a large market for innovative approaches to delivering efficient, attractive and resilient cities. We have world leading companies in areas such as project management, engineering, architecture, energy and transport systems, communications and the digital economy. The UK has a world class science and research base that supports the development of innovative solutions and provides a talent pool for UK and global firms, so we are well positioned to exploit the growing market."
