What is the Smart Data Challenge?
We live in a digital age. As a consequence, many areas of our lives are influenced, informed, or driven by data. We are constantly providing companies and organisations with more data about us; when we shop, when we watch television, when we travel - there is a non-stop exchange of digital information and data happening between us.
Smart Data enables individual consumers and business customers to access and share their data simply and securely with third parties, enabling those third parties to provide them with innovative services. This could be in any number of ways; via mobile apps, navigation systems, social media, sensors in consumer devices and the environment and digital transactions.
New forms of data offer a powerful opportunity to understand society, improve lives, and sustainably grow our economy. It is estimated that personal data mobility could increase GDP by £27.8 billion per year, and Smart Data will be key in unlocking this. Challenge Works, the Department for Business & Trade, the Open Data Institute and Smart Data Foundry are calling on innovators, entrepreneurs, academia and civil society to share ideas for ambitious and feasible solutions that could harness Smart Data to benefit small businesses and consumers in the future. During this first phase of the challenge, we want diverse innovators from across industry, academia and civil society to join the conversation about opening up services using Smart Data to make people’s lives better and easier. Join the conversation We want people and partnerships to share their blue sky-thinking for the solutions they envisage in a Smart Data world that benefit consumers and small businesses.
We’re looking for bright ideas with potential at this point, not fully-formed solutions, and are keen to encourage cross-sector collaborations.
We are particularly keen to encourage innovators working in:
- fintech and wider financial services;
- energy, water and utilities;
- telecoms, mobile and broadband;
- transport;
- property transactions;
- retail;
- health & wellbeing.
Sign up to our first event if this applies to you
Why are we doing this?
If during the Smart Data Challenge: Discovery Phase [TBC] we can:
- Demonstrate that there is the opportunity for Smart Data to improve services for consumers and SMEs - as open banking did for fintech
- Show there is an active innovator base ready to grab hold of those opportunities
Then our aim is to launch a £750k Smart Data Challenge in 2024. The Challenge would be an open innovation competition that will support the boldest and brightest ideas with seed funding and capacity building support to progress multiple high-potential Smart Data solutions through the stages of the competition before awarding a grand prize to the best.
Why should you submit your idea?
Innovators that take part in the Smart Data Challenge: Discovery [SOMETHING] will join a community of cutting-edge and creative thinkers that will help us to shape the direction of the Smart Data Prize.
Challenge prizes have a proven track-record of levelling the playing field for innovative new entrants, start-ups and entrepreneurs (in a world where grant programmes tend to favour well-known incumbents) because they support the best ideas no matter their origin. Submit your idea "We see an opportunity to coordinate and accelerate across initiatives, ensuring the standards that are developed can drive cross-sector innovations. These developing initiatives in each sector are facing many common challenges but addressing them independently. Examples include designing and developing mechanisms for consent and accreditation – that is, ensuring data is only shared with the customer’s permission, and with trusted third parties. This may lead to slower progress than can be achieved by working together, and risks duplication of work or divergent approaches which limit future interoperability. These initiatives have faced some challenges in getting industry on board which has delayed progress further."
