Energy Systems Catapult is launching an innovator challenge call in collaboration with Places for People, Geovation and Pineapple Partners, inviting SMEs developing products and services targeted at Zero Carbon Housing Solutions, Smart Buildings and Estates, to receive tailored business incubation and acceleration support.
The 4th intake of the Energy Launchpad offers SMEs access to advanced energy system expertise from across the Catapult alongside a wider network of around 40 firms offering a range of specialist business support.
The Energy Launchpad aims is to help innovators unlock new routes-to-market, secure investment and breakdown barriers to growth – with at least two innovator challenges running each year.
The Zero Carbon Housing Solutions, Smart Buildings and Estates challenge could include innovators working on:
A shortlist of SMEs will be generated and must be available to attend a workshop at the Catapult innovation hub in Birmingham on the 5th and 6th of May 2020. Closing date for applications is noon on the 30th March 2020.
Julie Alexander, Director of Technology & Innovation at Places for People said: “Climate change is the most pressing challenge of our time, and with the construction sector and buildings being the most prolific polluters, we need to be much more determined as a sector to tackle this issue head on.”.”
“Engaging with the supply chain is the starting point. We want to identify technologies and business models we can deploy that are effective, and deliverable within the coming decade”
“This call is not about finding the next renewable energy solution, it’s about developing interoperability across systems, using intelligent infrastructure to help us manage demand and supply and identifying new business models that will allow deployment at scale. It’s a combination of these approaches that will enable us to achieve our net zero ambitions.”
Paul Jordan, Energy Launchpad business lead, said: “One of the biggest challenges to achieving the UK’s climate change goals is creating Zero Carbon places for people to live and work. But this is also an opportunity on a grand scale.
“Working with Places for People, we recognised that emerging smart innovations provide a great opportunity to capture value from low carbon generation and infrastructure systems.
“Yet smart controls and interoperability between innovations remain a barrier for integrating buildings, estates and the wider energy system.
“So we’ve launched this challenge with the aim of unleashing innovative products and services that can realise benefits across the built environment for multiple stakeholders – from building occupants and owners to networks, system operators and energy suppliers.”
Start-ups will also be granted free membership to the Geovation Hub, an Ordnance Survey initiative that supports start-ups and provides them with world class location and place-based datasets. Start-ups joining the Geovation Hub can request specialist support and access an established start-up community and business network.
Alex Wrottesley, Head of Geovation said: “We are delighted to support the Zero Carbon: Smart Buildings & Estates challenge as a step towards accelerating the transition to net zero, through the disruptive power of location-based innovation and entrepreneurship. We welcome approaches from additional funding partners interested in supporting a Net Zero Accelerator being developed by Geovation with Pineapple Partnerships.
Places for People is a leading placemaker in the UK. It believes that places work when they work for everyone, and these places are designed for the long term, with sustainable value at their core. Delivering social impact by taking a commercial approach is what makes Places for People different.
The Group’s award-winning, placemaking, property investment, development and management companies are active throughout the UK and collectively have the capability and expertise to create and manage entire places, considering all the things a place needs to become a sustainable community.
Places for People owns or manages more than 197,000 homes, provides services to over 500,000 people, operates over 120 leisure facilities, has assets of £4.5bn, and will be delivering 25,000 new homes in the coming years.
Geovation was launched in 2010 by Ordnance Survey to support innovative start-ups using location and property data. Geovation operates two Accelerator Programmes, launched in 2016 and run in association with HM Land Registry and Registers of Scotland. These provide promising GeoTech and PropTech start-ups with focused guidance and support, access to quality data, and technical and financial resources to help them develop and thrive. Geovation has offices in London and Edinburgh and also has partnerships with innovation hubs in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Manchester to develop and support local start-ups.
Pineapple Partnerships helps to accelerate business to solve global challenges like climate change and access to clean and affordable energy. Pineapple are supporting the development of the accelerator initiative by helping to identify the different organisations that can add value to the process and innovators in order to act as a catalyst to the innovation process.
Find out more about how Energy Systems Catapult can help you and your teams
Find out more about how Energy Systems Catapult can help you and your teams