IBM wants to give your city £250k to make it smarter

Cities across the UK have just one week left to apply for free consultancy and technology in 2012 from IBM, as part of a grant programme worth £32m over the next three years.

Big Blue's Smarter Cities Challenge programme is a three-year, £32m grant offer in which cities around the world can apply for free consultancy from IBM's top technical experts and consultants. The deadline for applications to the 2012 grants is Friday 16 December: each grant has an equivalent value of approximately £250K in talent and technology, according to the supplier.

In March 2011 Glasgow was the first UK city to receive a Smarter Cities grant and IBM's advice led to the City Council last month launching a £1m affordable warmth initiative, marking the start of efforts to eradicate fuel poverty in the city.

This grant programme provides selected cities with access to teams of IBM employees with expertise on a variety of city-related matters. After collaborating with officials, citizens, businesses, academics and community leaders, the IBM teams recommend actions to make the delivery of services to citizens more efficient and effective. Issues addressed have included jobs, health, public safety, transportation, social services, recreation, education, energy and sustainability.  

Mark Wakefield, IBM Corporate Citizenship Manager, said he hoped the success of the Glasgow project would result in some strong proposals from other UK cities: "Our Smarter Cities work is about looking at data and trends to make better decisions about the challenges that cities are currently facing. I'm sure there are some extremely worthwhile projects in the UK where we can make a real difference."

Interested city leaders can contact Mark Wakefield directly at: wakefim@uk.ibm.com