Small businesses can win up to £25,000 each to explore digital innovations in data, as part of a new contest backed by IC tomorrow, part of the Technology Strategy Board.
Five start-ups will be selected to work with a range of public and private sector business leaders to help develop pioneering commercial solutions in relation to big data.
Earlier this year, the Technology Strategy Board invested up to £4.5m in R&D initiatives that address the technical challenges and business opportunities presented by the huge growth in data. In George Osborne’s recent budget speech, it was also announced that the Government has committed to providing £42m over five years to create The Alan Turing institute – a new project which will focus on new ways of collecting, organising and analysing large sets of data.
This contest builds on IC tomorrow and the wider Technology Strategy Board programme’s commitment to helping businesses extract greater value from data.
The five areas of development specific to the contest are:
- Commercialisation of mobile data
- Processing data efficiently
- Data visualisation and analytic decision making
- Geospacial data mapping
- Value of public-domain data
Matt Sansam, programme manager at IC tomorrow, said: “It’s not necessary to have an existing app or service, or to be currently active in the data industry. We welcome applications for innovative products, platforms or services from a range of small businesses, even if they are only at ideas stage.”
A briefing event for the contest will take place at BL-NK, London on Wednesday 9 April. The deadline for applications is 12pm on Wednesday 7 May 2014.