This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Kathy Nothstine
Head, Future Cities
Pronouns: She/Her
Kathy is our Head of Future Cities, where she focuses on place-based innovation and empowering cities to shape their destiny.
Current and recent projects she has led include:
- The Mayor’s Resilience Fund, the Mayor of London’s £1 million challenge fund to incentivise innovators solve 10 different challenges across the city
- The Climate Smart Cities Challenge, a global initiative to reduce greenhouse gases in cities
- The Rapid Recovery Challenge, aimed at improving access to jobs and money for people hardest hit by the economic shock resulting from COVID-19
- Flying High, a multi-sector collaboration to engage cities, industry, service users, residents and other stakeholders to shape the future of urban drone services.
Kathy is passionate about cities and communities, and has over a decade of experience in urban planning and working with local governments. She has designed and delivered capacity-building and technical assistance programmes to identify and scale up transformative new approaches to creating stronger communities and economies based on local assets and place-based strategies. She has worked on rural and urban development and regeneration schemes, planning proposals and transport plans in the public and private sector.
In her spare time Kathy enjoys running, yoga and country walks.
Blogs by Kathy
-
![Silhouettes of people against a mountain vista at sunset]()
Announcing the Climate Smart Cities Challenge finalists
Blog
-
![innovator female engineer]()
Challenge funds – what, who, and why?
Thought Leadership
-
![innovation light bulb]()
City and region challenge funds
Thought Leadership
-
![nice design stairs]()
Designing challenge funds
Thought Leadership
-
![cities]()
Empowering people to shape city futures with a challenge-led approach
Thought Leadership
-
![A view down a London street towards St. Pauls Cathedral]()
Finalists win £10K each to improve London’s future
Blog
-
![Aerial photograph of a city at sunset]()
Five things we’ve learned about running city-based open innovation challenges
Blog
-
![Climate Smart Cities Challenge - Creating healthy, thriving and climate neutral cities]()
Four cities selected for the Climate Smart Cities Challenge
Blog
-
![accelerate innovation]()
How can we accelerate innovation to respond to the climate crisis?
Blog
-
![London Mayor Sadiq Khan sits in the centre of the pic looking to the left. The background is a wall with blue wallpaper outlining the city of London.]()
Mayor’s Resilience Fund: Call for challenge partners
Blog
-
![High rise buildings in London, pictured against a cloudy sky]()
Open call to help solve some of London’s most pressing challenges
Blog










