Peterborough: Delivering a truly smart city

peterborough
Delivering
a truly
smart
city
smart city
solutions
Peterborough
DNA at a glance
Skills for our Future
Peterborough Graduate Scheme – boosting local
businesses with a part-funded graduate for six months
Bursary Scheme – developing home-grown talent
Skills and Innovation Centre – dedicated hub to
drive aspiration
Innovation
Brainwave – A greenhouse for good ideas and
gateway to business opportunities and funding
Breakthrough Thinking events – helping people
think like innovators
Challenge Fund – financial backing to get
products to market
Innovation lab – bespoke R&D facility for
entrepreneurs
Smart Business
Smart Business network – a collaborative
business partnership for companies to help each other
1-2-1 advice – improving business efficiency
Business park collaborative platform –
interactive model of the area to map operations
Create a circular economy – redesigning
business processes to a virtuous cycle of
manufacture and reuse
Test-bedding – testing prototype technologies in
live business environments
Open Data
Living Data Portal – online, interactive city map
that allows interrogation of data sets
Hackathons – harnessing the power of
Peterborough’s creative sector
Weather Stations – young people learning and
gathering intelligence for city agencies
smart city
challenges
Peterborough
DNA at a glance
Skills for our Future
The right skills to meet business demand
Take advantage of emerging markets
Strong university offer
Grow and retain local expertise to tackle sustainability challenges
Innovation
An innovation community
The right environment to get new
ideas off the ground
Boost economic growth and improve social wellbeing
Smart Business
Sustainable businesses – economically robust with lowenvironmental impact
Competitive companies in good
shape to grow
Large and small businesses working together
The UK’s
fastest
growing
city
One of
the UK’s
“A new town with medieval
roots, Peterborough has always
been forward-thinking, a city
ahead of its time.”
Marco Cereste, Leader, Peterborough City Council
183,000
people
£1billion
4
Future City
regeneration programme
Demonstrators
2nd
Ranked
in the country
for private sector growth
A diverse
economy
£
with world-leading
companies in advanced
manufacturing, finance
and agriculture
Open Data
Increase understanding of how
the city works
Greater data sharing between organisations
Model information to identify correlations and monitor changes
A multicultural
population of over
Creating the
UK’s Environment Capital,
with the country’s
largest cluster of
environmental
businesses
Gigabit
city:
access to the
world’s fastest
business
internet
speeds
Our
approach
Future
cities
In 2012 the
Government’s
innovation agency,
Innovate UK
(Technology Strategy
Board), launched a
UK-wide future cities
competition to
demonstrate how
cities could take a new
approach to how they
run. By developing
and testing innovative
ideas, cities were
called upon to shape
smarter and more
sustainable places.
A Smart City step-change
Peterborough DNA is creating a step-change in how the city
works, delivering new integration and synergies between
partners to make urban systems more effective.
Just as cities come in all shapes and sizes, so
do Smart City approaches and projects. For
Peterborough, the starting point was to
assess the key challenges the city faces and
embed long-term change by working from
the inside out.
Two priorities are central to Peterborough’s
approach – integration and grassroots
collaboration. Effective human interaction
complements the power of data and
information and all initiatives work together
to embed change for long-term impact. The
benefit of every activity is amplified because
it’s all working towards the same
fundamental goal: growth, innovation and
sustainability.
“There’s no doubt that talking car parks or
solar powered bins have merit in some areas.
But, for Peterborough, our smart city
approach is about thinking and acting
differently to tackle some of the core
challenges that cities face. This might be
raising skills aspirations to meet long-term
economic needs, or integrating data to
inform business and environmental
efficiencies. We’re focused on real challenges
and real solutions.”
Steve Bowyer, Programme Director of Peterborough DNA,
Opportunity Peterborough
Smart City initiatives
that are replicable
Small and mid-sized cities have an important
role to play when it comes to making the UK’s
urban systems work smarter. The initiatives
being carried out in Peterborough are
designed to be blueprints for wider roll out
– practical, affordable and easily replicable.
“Smaller smart city projects are reporting a
positive return on investment and are good
examples for larger cities like London to
follow. Success is less likely to come from
grandiose projects and more likely to derive
from a series of small improvements. The key
is a clear solution to a clear problem rather
than a technology showcase.”
David Akka, HuffPost Tech
Living
data
Smart
business
Making sure local
businesses are
sustainable in all
senses of the
word – resilient
and with low
environmental
impact.
INNOVATION
Identify and solve city
challenges, provide new
opportunities for local
businesses and
encourage innovation
and entrepreneurial
activity in the city.
Cities have a lot of
data, about
population, health,
waste, education and
more. Peterborough
DNA is bringing this
data to life and
making it accessible
and easy to spot
correlations. The
idea is to provide a
tool for businesses,
communities and
public sector staff to
better understand
Peterborough and
inspire innovative
solutions to local
challenges.
skills
for our
future
Making sure
we have the
right skills to
take
advantage of
emerging
green markets
and respond
to our own
sustainability
challenges.
With a bid developed
with public, private
and third sector
partnership,
Peterborough was
awarded £3million.
The ‘Peterborough
DNA’ programme was
born: to implement
the ideas, innovations
and new systems that
were put forward.
Delivering a smarter city
Skills for
our Future
For a long time, Peterborough was one of the largest cities without a
university and in the largest cold-spot for higher education provision.
Recent investment in both Higher Education and the entire school
system has seen the establishment of University Centre Peterborough
and unparalleled improvement in education performance. How could
Peterborough DNA accelerate the benefits of this into the city’s
communities and businesses?
The challenge
Ensure the city has the right skills to meet local
business demand
Develop future skills to put Peterborough in
the best possible position to take advantage of
emerging markets
Build the university offer and establish it as a
hub for innovation
Grow and retain local expertise to tackle
sustainability challenges on the doorstep
Our approach
Leverage existing pioneering work, like the
Peterborough Skills Service, rather than
reinventing the wheel
Inspire the city’s young people through
real-life opportunities
Deliver the local skills that businesses need
now and in the future
C as e s t u d y
Nilam Patel and Jennie Orrell were the very first Peterborough
DNA bursary scheme beneficiaries, studying the MSc in Sustainability:
Working for Positive Change. Developed in partnership by Anglia Ruskin
University, the Eden Project and Change Agents UK, the course features
practical engagement including a workshop with Eden Project founder Tim
Smit and hands-on work placements in local companies.
“The Peterborough DNA opportunity has
been invaluable for me. I’ve learnt so much,
widened my horizons, and built an
incredible UK-wide specialist network. Now
I’m bringing all that back to the city and
helping local businesses work smarter.”
Nilam Patel, MSc Bursary Scheme participant
Our smart city
solution
Peterborough Graduate
Scheme – 12 part-funded
graduates for six months to
boost local businesses and
tackle their sustainability
challenges; raising the profile of
University Centre Peterborough
Bursary Scheme –
developing homegrown talent
with funding for four residents
to study an MSc in
Sustainability. Creating
opportunities for local people
and re-investing new skills back
into the city to drive Smart City
approaches
Skills and Innovation
Centre – a brand new,
dedicated hub to drive
aspiration in local young
people through interaction with
innovating businesses
C as e s t u d y
Inventor, Michael Reid successfully applied to the
Challenge Fund to develop his prototype solar powered
terrace heater and get it to market. The heater’s panels
capture and store the sun’s energy during daylight and
rotate to provide ambient warmth into the night.
“Peterborough is full of people with a
lot of good ideas and it’s wonderful
that something’s being done to help
them come to fruition. It’s a long and
arduous task to turn an idea into a
product actually on the market so
this support is very welcome indeed.
If you want something done you’re
pretty much likely to be able to get
it done in Peterborough.”
Michael Reid, product innovator
Delivering a smarter city
Innovation
Our smart city solution
Our approach
Major global companies such as Perkins, Travelex
and BGL, are based in Peterborough, however, the
city’s economy is reliant on SMEs. We have a
powerhouse of innovating and entrepreneurial
companies, but many new ideas were frustrated
before they had even taken off: they needed new
marketplaces and models of support.
The challenge
Build an innovation
community to tackle city
challenges in new ways
Provide the right
environment to get new ideas
off the ground
Boost economic growth
and improve social wellbeing
Spark innovation leading to
long-term, embedded change
Dedicated support for city
SMEs, the lifeblood of
Peterborough’s economy
Radical thinking for a
step-change in how city-scale
challenges are solved, like
diverting waste from landfill
and reducing reliance on cars
Brainwave – a greenhouse for good ideas and gateway to business
opportunities and funding. 130+ members already using this free, open, online
platform where entrepreneurs, residents and communities can develop, share
and discuss ideas that solve city and business challenges
Breakthrough Thinking events – facilitated workshops attended by a
cross-section of business, public and third sector communities. Helping people
think like innovators, turn problems into opportunities, and create collaborative
focus groups for innovation
Challenge Fund – financial backing and expertise to develop prototypes
and get products and services to market. Wide breadth of supported projects
from cleantech and community green spaces to innovations in dance teaching
Innovation lab – a bespoke R&D facility for entrepreneurs, already attracting
considerable interest from multinationals and academic institutions. Integrated
into the new Skills Centre and featuring 3D printers, workshop space, and
manufacturing equipment
Delivering a smarter city
The challenge
Smart
Business
Sustainable businesses in all senses of
the word – economically robust with
low-environmental impact
Competitive companies in good shape
to grow and take advantage of future
opportunities and emerging markets
Large and small businesses working
together for mutual benefit
Our approach
Test solutions in a focused business
district
Provide intensive support to a small
number of core businesses and a
programme of dedicated advice and
activities for a wider network of companies
Ensure long-term benefit and impact
by equipping businesses to collaborate
and work smarter
Our Smart City solution
Smart Business network – building a collaborative
business partnership for companies to help each other.
A core of companies including Skanska, Viridor and
Amey alongside SMEs are already working jointly to
tackle common challenges
1-2-1 advice - specialist environmental audits to
improve business efficiency
Business park collaborative platform – engaging
businesses with an interactive model of the area to map
operations - traffic flows, waste produced, raw
materials used, energy consumed
Create a circular economy – redesigning business
processes away from the linear ‘take, make, dispose’
model to a virtuous cycle of manufacture and reuse
Test-bedding – testing technologies in live
business environments, generating new commercial
opportunities for the tester and the host. A
revolutionary wind turbine prototype is already in situ
within just five months of the fund launch
C as e s t u d y
A love of coffee got Pav Patel and Gary Graves thinking when
they spotted a challenge on the Brainwave platform. Posted by
international coffee manufacturer Masteroast, the challenge
was how to divert large quantities of coffee sacks from landfill.
With the support of Peterborough DNA, Pav and Gary have
formed Peterborough Reuse and are now developing new
opportunities to repurpose these hessian bags including a line in
shopping bags, riverbank reinforcement as part of flood
protection schemes, and mulch for use in tree planting. A true
community and commercial project, the shopping bags will be
hand-made by members of ‘new arrival’ communities to help
them integrate into the city and improve their English.
“Peterborough DNA has created
space for thinking differently,
and trialling new things. This is
businesses, public sector
agencies, and communities all
working together.”
Pav Patel, small business
owner, entrepreneur
Delivering a smarter city
“Data is being used in the city to offer insight about local school
and health provision – helping residents reshape their city.”
Open data
The Guardian, Lessons from Peterborough: how to get, use and present a city’s data, 17 June 2014
In 2008, Peterborough led the way with its ‘Peterborough Model’:
a digital visualisation of how the city was performing. Since then,
the Smart City agenda has exploded, with vastly complex city
intelligence systems being developed and sold. But if it is to be
useful, data needs to be meaningful and accessible.
The challenge
Increase understanding across
Peterborough about how the city works
Encourage greater sharing of data
between partner organisations
Model information in a cost-effective way
to identify correlations and monitor changes
Our approach
Make city data fun and interesting for
residents, communities and businesses
Encourage people to interrogate the
information for themselves and look for
connections, problems, and solutions
Create interactive and accessible data
models that don’t cost the earth and can
automatically update
Build partnerships with leading intelligence
companies to identify appropriate
opportunities for cutting-edge interventions
Our Smart City solution
Living Data Portal – democratising
access to data; a low-cost online, interactive
city map displaying a wide range of
intelligence including census data, crime
stats, and health information. An open,
accessible Google Earth model that allows
full interrogation of data sets, displays
results in an engaging way, and allows
users to import their own data
Hackathons – a series of events
engaging Peterborough’s creative sector
to develop new apps for the emerging
digital solutions, such as the on-street
interactive city screen
Weather Stations – weather stations
installed in over 25 schools in
Peterborough to monitor changes,
provide intelligence for statutory and
environmental agencies, and to be used
as a teaching resource for local students
C as e s t u d y
A number of schools in the UK are
currently linked into the DISTANCE
programme which connects data from
local weather stations into the Internet
of (School) Things. Currently, only one
Peterborough school, The King’s
School, is involved in this initiative.
Peterborough DNA has recognised the
benefits being derived by The King’s
School in terms of teaching
opportunities and is rolling it out to 25
schools across the city. The data sourced
from these installations can be used at all
levels of education and across subjects,
from science and technology to social
behaviour studies. The information will
also be invaluable for monitoring
meteorological and climate activity.
“This is a hugely exciting opportunity enabling new
intelligence to be monitored, shared and used. The
idea itself is not new but doing it across a whole city is,
and that depth of integration demonstrates how we are
doing things differently in Peterborough.”
Richard Godfrey, ICT Strategy, Infrastructure and Programme Manager, Peterborough City Council
A primary intention of
the original Future City
Demonstrator
programme was to
encourage the sharing of
lessons learnt and best
practice and, crucially, to
stimulate international
export by bringing
British solutions to new
markets. In effect, to
demonstrate the UK as a
global hub and incubator
of innovation.
Peterborough DNA has
grasped this challenge
and is raising the profile
of the city and its
businesses and
supporting the UK’s
presence in the global
innovation marketplace.
Peterborough DNA is
showcasing Smart City
solutions; leading and
engaging in discussions
across the UK and Europe
We’re raising the
profile of UK innovation,
smart thinking and
collaborative
partnerships through
expos and conferences
We’ve also learnt from
other countries as the
programme develops
and integrated key
insight and learning into
our work
“It’s great to have a
real example of a
city doing practical
smart city work – so
many of the things
you hear about are
hypothetical or
off-the-shelf fixes.
You’ve worked with
real people to
develop solutions.”
Geert Adriaens, Chair of the Public Policy
Exchange ‘Smart Cities, Smart Europe’
event, Brussels, July 2014
International
impact
a true ‘Future City’
demonstrator
peterborough on the
international stage
Smart City Expo
Barcelona
November 2013
Smart to
Future Cities
London
April 2014
Smart City
Event
Amsterdam
May 2014
Franco-British
workshop on ICT
in Future Cities
London
May 2014
EU Cleantech
incubation
Peterborough
June 2014
Urban
London Smart
City
influencers
London
June 2014
Peterborough
DNA
The Future of
our Smart City
The Future City Demonstrator programme has kick-started something special
in Peterborough. It’s created an opportunity to change the way the city thinks
and acts: growth and innovation have always been part of our DNA, and we
are now doing that in a smarter way. With a rapidly growing population, and
pressures on services and resources, this is more important than ever.
The step-change in
how the city works is
all about creating a
better place to live
and work. Our aim
throughout has been
to develop and test
smart solutions that
are replicable across
the country and
beyond.
European
Green Week
– circular
economy
Brussels
June 2014
We will be partnering
with leading academic
institutions to measure
the impact of
Peterborough DNA and
build a strong case for
replication elsewhere.
We want to learn from
our experiences and
share that understanding
with other cities.
Smart Cities,
Smart Europe
Brussels
July 2014
European
Innovation
Partnership
on Smart
Cities and
Communities
Brussels
October 2014
Peterborough’s
approach is costeffective, highly
impactful, and scalable.
We have generated and
embedded the Smart
City frameworks and
networks, along with the
innovations and
interventions, that
inspire transformation.
Smart City
Leadership
Programme
We’ve developed a leadership
programme, and are working
with other UK cities, to put Smart
City aspirations into action. We
aim to bring the British
Standards Institute’s PAS181
Smart City framework to life for
ourselves and other cities:
“A ‘smart city’ effectively
integrates the physical, spatial,
digital and human worlds to
deliver a sustainable,
prosperous and inclusive
future for its
citizens.”
We want to continue
working in collaboration
with Central Government
and major private sector
partners to secure the
continuity of our Smart
City programme and
safeguard the city’s
long-term economic,
environmental, and
social sustainability.
Innovate UK
London
November 2014
Smart City Expo
Barcelona
November 2014
Resource
London
March 2015
Find out more
PeterboroughDNA.com
BrainwaveInnovations.co.uk
@PeterboroughDNA
Get in touch
steve.bowyer@opportunitypeterborough.co.uk
+44 (0) 1733 317417