Flying High Urban Drones Prize
What is the Flying High Urban Drones Prize?
Our aim: A challenge prize to develop and prove an innovative, safe and commercially viable urban drone service that provides public benefit.
Drone technology has come on in leaps and bounds. Drones are now a familiar sight, in use by military, civilian operators and even hobbyists.
They have the potential to do even more. Their use in complex urban settings, and remote or robotic operation over long distances – are key to unlocking some of the most exciting use cases. But they also face serious technological and regulatory barriers.
How will the Flying high Urban Drone Prize work?
The Flying High Urban Drones Prize will accelerate development towards innovative, safe and commercially viable urban drone services that provides public benefit by performing one or more of:
- transporting medical items
- supporting emergency response
- supporting infrastructure development and maintenance
Innovators will develop the technology to safely deliver these socially beneficial services in the most complex and harsh environments: modern cities. The prize will not just accelerate development of these tech and service offerings, but also inform the evolution of regulation of this emerging field of technology.
Why a does this problem need a challenge prize?
Innovation in the drone world is moving fast. However, creating new applications that work in cities – where safety is paramount and regulation is most complex – is slower.
This is a shame, because cities and people see the potential benefits that drones can bring – in delivering socially beneficial public services that make us safer and more prosperous.
The Flying High Urban Drones Prize will set drone entrepreneurs, including from the UK’s thriving UAV sector, the challenge of safely developing demonstrations of these services, as a way of accelerating their adoption.
Are other organisations using challenge prizes to accelerate drone use?
Innovate UK’s Future Flight Challenge has already directed public funds towards the development of future aviation technology and services in general, and drones in particular.
Flying High is different in that it sets specific objectives. Three key use cases have been identified that can be developed in consultation with city stakeholders around the UK. These are the challenges we will set entrepreneurs to deliver.
A new kind of collaboration for commercial drone services success
Research by the Challenge Works team into the opportunities and pitfalls of the drone industry identified that consortia delivering these cutting-edge services would very likely need to have three key players involved, which do not always work together. The challenge prize will incentivise them to do so. These are:
-
- Technical: providing the drone technology and service.
- End user: a customer which is interested in piloting the service at the end of the challenge, and who will help to co-develop the service with the technical partner.
- Local authority: a city which endorses the application. Convening civic engagement activities around the use case and the industry in general. It could host a trial, demonstration or pilot at the end of the challenge.
What makes commercial urban drone use so challenging?
The low hanging fruit of drone services are those that don’t take place in crowded or controlled airspace.
It is easy to wait and see what the development of regulation and public opinion looks like. But we need to grasp the nettle: it’s very easy for public opinion – so far, supportive of drones – to sour.
The Flying High Urban Drone Prize will accelerate innovation in urban settings and towards public demonstrations, where the public can have a say and shape the future of the technology.
What would the Flying High Urban Drones Prize look like?
Proposed prize structure:
- Stage 1: 15 teams selected and awarded £150k to develop their business case with support and carry out physical testing and demonstrations in a controlled environment. (6 months)
- Stage 2: The best 9 teams progress, are awarded £400k each and are provided access to a testbed facility, in which they develop and demonstrate increasingly complex tech offerings. (9 months)
- Stage 3: Three winning teams are awarded £1m each, and are selected to carry out 2 month urban demonstrations of their winning technology in a partner city and with a customer of their choice.
The Flying High Urban Drones Prize focuses on developing safe and economically viable drone services for public benefit. If your organisation is interested making it happen, get in touch.
The Flying High Urban Drones Prize
This prize idea is designed to be a conversation starter, so tell us what you think!
The best prize ideas are developed through extensive research and engagement with experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience of the problems they are focused on. We start with a first draft like the one above – then work to improve, refine and validate our thinking.
We’re particularly keen to have conversations about this idea with potential funders and organisations working in the field. Get in touch if you’re interested – or if you think you have a better idea – and we’ll schedule a call.
Mission Possible: The role of challenge prizes in a revitalised UK innovation strategy
Challenge Works has put together a report shedding light on the role of challenge prizes in revitalising the UK Innovation Strategy.
Challenge prizes can complement grants, reduce risk in portfolios of government innovation investments, and can be particularly effective at stimulating near-market innovation targeting specific outcomes and private R&D investment.
