The Department for Business and Trade, Challenge Works, and the Open Data Institute have launched the Smart Data Challenge, offering a prize fund of £600,000 for the most innovative apps and technologies in the data and innovation sector. The competition aims to support startups and entrepreneurs in various sectors such as financial services, energy, retail, transport, and home buying.
Justin Madders, Minister for Employment Rights, Competition, and Markets, highlighted the potential of smart data to drive innovation and economic growth, citing the success of open banking in raising private funding. The UK’s experience in promoting open banking as a model for using smart data to enhance services for consumers and small businesses is a key focus of the challenge.
The competition aims to address the lack of real-world smart data by providing access to a “smart data sandbox” for successful teams to test and develop their ideas. The goal is to reward cross-sector technologies that benefit consumers and SMEs, fostering competition and economic growth.
The Smart Data Challenge Prize encourages diverse innovators to submit solutions that improve people’s lives. Holly Jamieson, Executive Director of Challenge Works, emphasized the competition’s open innovation approach, welcoming ideas from industry, academia, and civil society.
Louise Burke, CEO of the Open Data Institute, highlighted the importance of access to high-quality data for smart data innovators to demonstrate the benefits of their ideas. The smart data sandbox will provide data across 11 domains to help innovators develop prototype solutions.
The competition builds on the success of the Smart Data Discovery Challenge and aims to address challenges such as the cost of living, clean power transition, SME competitiveness, and support for vulnerable customers. Finalists will receive seed funding, mentoring, and access to the sandbox, with the overall winner receiving £50,000.
The government expects the competition to generate insights into tested use cases across various sectors and identify barriers to development. Entries for the Smart Data Challenge Prize must be UK-led, with a deadline of 14 March 2025 for submissions.
