Introducing the 10 Smart Data Challenge Prize finalist teams

68% of people in the UK plan to install solar panels (DESNZ), but domestic solar energy is often generated and exported to the grid with households selling excess energy cheaply, while later having to buy expensive grid energy. BelowZero is a smart system that helps homes use, store, or sell solar power at the best times without the need to install extra hardware. The team will create a prototype that uses weather, energy pricing, energy consumption and property data to decide every 30 minutes how to save the most money and cut pollution. Early tests show potential for big savings on bills and carbon, making energy smarter and greener for everyone.

Millions of people in the UK struggle with saving money, getting fair loans, or understanding tricky financial choices. Debit Score® by Cheddar Payments is similar to a credit score, yet is a smart tool that intends to use multiple datasets including bank, insurance, energy and retail data to give people a clearer picture of their money habits, improving financial literacy and decision making. It aims to help them save more, find better deals, and get fairer access to things like mortgages, loans and credit cards. By using safe, shared data, it makes money matters simpler and fairer for everyone.

Buying a home takes around 22 weeks and is recognised as one of the most stressful life events, often because important data required to make an informed selling, buying and mortgage lending decision is not available when it’s needed. Moverly and Open Property Data Association (OPDA) members aim to use Smart Data to generate a “digital property pack” at the very start of the homebuying process, with all the key data ready to go in one safe place. It helps buyers, sellers, and lenders make better decisions faster, saving time, money, and stress. By using Smart Data, the homebuying process becomes quicker, clearer, and much easier for everyone.

Every winter in the UK, people in low-income households suffer in cold homes because they can’t afford heating. GlowTrack by Horizon Zero aims to target support to those most in need by using secure transaction data with financial services, energy and property sectors to build a “heating support priority index”. To lower heating costs, this prototype will estimate total demand from the prioritised households in the index and with the aim of bulk-purchasing energy at wholesale rates, significantly reducing costs compared to retail rates. Pre-ordering ahead of winter would also provide suppliers with demand certainty, further driving down prices.

Businesses often struggle to measure their carbon emissions correctly – particularly Scope 3 emissions across their supply chain – which makes it harder to fight climate change. Mycelium is creating a free, open platform that uses smart meter and carbon accounting data to track real carbon emissions and make it easy to report Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In turn it helps other businesses, financial institutions and procurement teams to find low-carbon suppliers using primary, validated emissions data.

Nigel is an AI-driven, customer engagement platform that enables businesses to deliver hyper-personalised, actionable insights directly to their customers. The prototype will demonstrate how a secure, intuitive mobile vault could manage all life-admin tasks, including insurance, utilities and mortgages. Nigel aims to help the user stay organised, in control and ensures they never miss an important deadline. By using Smart Data, Nigel could help people save money, avoid problems, and make better decisions with simple actions. It also helps businesses understand their customers better, saving money and building trust with personalised support.

Domestic transport accounts for almost a third of UK greenhouse gas emissions. As people and businesses become increasingly aware of the environmental impacts of their different journeys, they are motivated to minimise their footprints. Open Transport Technology is seeking to use multiple sources of transport and journey data, consumer financial data and open data around CO2 emissions of transport modes to create the first working personalised transport data dashboard for customers, to make informed, efficient travel decisions while minimising environmental impact.

Rodeo is building a smart system to help the UK’s 4 million independent workers, like delivery drivers, find work, track earnings from multiple companies, and manage their finances. It plans to create one simple profile with all their information, making it easier to apply for jobs and keep track of pay. By speeding up the hiring process for employers and helping workers manage their income, it would save time and money for both parties.

The Smart Data Consent Manager by Smarter Contracts is an application that aims to provide individuals with a secure, privacy-preserving way to manage how their data is accessed, shared, and reused across sectors, such as energy and finance. Instead of repeatedly authorising each new service, users can issue, monitor, modify, or revoke permissions from one trusted, intuitive interface. This ensures permissions travel with the data, remain enforceable wherever they flow, and can be verified by all participating parties, establishing a trusted foundation for cross-sector data collaboration.

Smart Energy Marketplace tackles energy management by helping businesses cut energy waste, optimise energy costs, and get their buildings ready for new EPC rules coming in 2030. It will bring together multiple data sources (meter readings, tariffs, carbon intensity, EPC ratings, building characteristics and financial data) to provide tailored advice to help SMEs pick better energy deals and achieve EPC A or B ratings. Instead of prioritising tariffs with the best fees over environmental credentials, this tool aims to be fair, honest, and help businesses do the right thing for the planet.