Mayor to harness the power of tech and data to tackle London’s challenges

London’s tech sector to address climate change, ageing population and inequality

Older and more vulnerable Londoners are among those set to benefit from a range of tech innovations under a major new initiative launched today by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Speaking at the opening of this year’s London Tech Week, the Mayor launched his Civic Innovation Challenge, which will play a major role in establishing London as a hub for technological innovation.

The Challenge will match tech startups with leading companies and public bodies to create innovative solutions to some of London’s most pressing problems.

The first year of the programme includes seven challenges across three themes: climate change (active travel, electric vehicles, housing), ageing population (dementia) and inequality (loneliness, physical activity, financial inclusion).

Organisations partnering with startups on the initial round of innovations being developed are Transport for London (TfL), Ealing Council, Hackney Council, Lloyds Banking Group, Our Healthier South East London STP and National Grid.

We’re excited to announce that we’re supporting the Mayor of London to deliver the Civic Innovation Challenge. We saw this as a great opportunity to help the growing community of tech for good startups pilot their solutions with huge customers such as TfL and the National Grid.

To address the effects of the city’s ageing population, NHS organisations in south London are looking for partners to help develop a digital archive of material reminiscence therapy, to alleviate the most distressing symptoms of dementia — specifically designed to Londoners of a black and minority ethnic background. This therapy uses video, audio and images to trigger long-term memories in dementia patients, but currently services tend to only be relevant to white Londoners.

To tackle climate change — and make the city more liveable — TfL is looking for tech startups to encourage people to walk more instead of using polluting forms of transport as well as companies which can help them reduce the carbon emissions from their own network. This aligns with the Mayor’s target of 80 per cent of all trips in London to be on foot, by cycle or by public transport by 2041.

Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking Group is searching for creative solutions to tackle inequality by increasing financial inclusion, which is shown to restrict people’s economic opportunities and make it harder to move out of poverty. The projects will be aimed at helping Londoners access banking and other services as well as helping them manage their money more effectively.

The Civic Innovation Challenge was launched today by the Mayor as part of his Smarter London Together roadmap — his vision of how he will realise his ambition for the capital to become the world’s leading smart city — during his opening address at London Tech Week, which showcases the city as Europe’s tech capital across more than 200 events attended by 50,000 people from around the world.

It is being funded by the Mayor, the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) — via the London Growth Hub — and Transport for London (TfL).

For more information and to apply head to www.civicinnovation.london