Innovators will bring London back to life

By: Kathy Nothstine, Lead of Future Cities at Nesta Challenges

It has been a challenging year for Londoners – an understatement to say the least. The pandemic has ravaged its vulnerable population and changed businesses forever, closed the doors of restaurants and theatres, left people fearful of popping to the shops, reluctant to board a train and afraid of coming too close to others in their local community.

The virus has exposed and aggravated problems in our society, from poor housing, to an ageing population. While the recent milestone of 15 million in the UK and 80 percent of London’s over-70s receiving their first vaccine heralds the return of normal life, we know there is still a long road ahead – and this time in history represents a real opportunity to encourage new and better ways of doing things in London.

London has a longstanding reputation for pioneering novel services and technologies, and even attracted record sums of tech start-up capital last year, despite the pandemic.

By pairing the city’s greatest innovators with front-line organisations who know our residents’ problems well, we can better address some of London’s most pressing problems, by combining technical skill, user-centred design and local expertise.

Such is the thinking behind the Mayor’s Resilience Fund, a £1 million innovation programme bringing together London’s key stakeholders – comprising local authorities, public agencies, social enterprises, and community groups – with innovators to create, test and iterate new approaches to ten challenges faced by the capital, as identified by the organisations who know the city and its residents best.

Varied challenges

The areas that require innovative solutions are varied and essential to London bouncing back stronger and more resilient. They include finding ways to reduce air pollution and produce renewable energy, to creating digital services that support gig economy workers’ financial planning and boosting London’s businesses – which saw a significant drop in activity in March.

Other challenges are centred around shaping a London in which freight travel is eco-friendly, vacant properties are brought back into use and local food systems are better managed. We are also looking for ways to create affordable workspaces, provide more accessible bereavement support for minority ethnic groups, to ensure local markets are diverse and resilient, and to help Londoners to feel confident travelling around town in the era of Covid.

Previous challenge prizes in the UK such as Nesta Challenges’ Smart Ageing Prize have unearthed what innovation as a result of challenge prizes can do for society.

For example, Link-ages is a software that allows less tech-savvy seniors to easily and safely connect with their families and friends online, reducing feelings of social isolation faced by older people and in turn, improving their quality of life. Set up to support those hit hardest by the pandemic, Nesta’s Rapid Recovery Challenge recently announced its semi-finalists, including Evenbreak, a not-for-profit solution providing tailored help to disabled people looking for sustainable work.

With start-ups in the UK struggling to raise finance in the current climate, we know it can be difficult for budding innovators to receive the funding necessary to realise their fantastic ideas. Over the course of the challenge, innovators have the opportunity to receive up to £50,000. We are awarding £10,000 each to up to 40 innovators in the first round alongside capacity building support. Ultimately, ten winning teams will be selected to receive an additional £40,000 each to implement their projects in the real world.

With the right support, innovators and tech-driven businesses, working alongside community groups, can support London to emerge stronger from COVID-19. With its reputation for diverse innovation, and talent, earning it the accolade of the second best tech hub in the world after Singapore, London is, without doubt, primed for a post-pandemic, tech-facilitated comeback.

Innovators with ideas to facilitate London’s recovery can submit proposals to address London’s greatest challenges before 1 April 2021.

Image: janmennens