WIREDGOV

Launch of £50,000 STFC Hartree Centre Competition for UK SMEs

The STFC Hartree Centre has yesterday announced the launch of a £50,000 competition for UK SMEs to win ’Proof of Principle’ vouchers to help them unlock the business opportunities offered by the Internet of Things (IOT). The competition is building on the Hartree’s transformation of STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory into an IoT ‘living lab’ – one that is instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.

The Hartree team is committed to accelerating progress in this game-changing field and has now launched this competition for SMEs to secure expert support for their own IoT projects. SMEs each have the chance to win vouchers worth up to £25,000 to exploit this emerging area of technology.

Speaking about the competition, David Moss, Advanced Technologies Solutions Manager at the Hartree Centre, said:

“Embracing hardware, software, system architectures, sensing and signalling technologies, data storage and analytics, social media exploitation and an intuitive visualisation portal, this ground-breaking demonstrator, developed here at Hartree, offers clear evidence of how the centre’s capabilities can benefit all types of organisation. This new competition offers the perfect conditions for SME’s to use their own expertise in collaboration with the Hartree Centre, to provide new opportunities for working with UK businesses.”

The core concept behind the IoT is this: to use sensing and internet technologies to incorporate all kinds of devices, objects and systems into networks that collect, exchange, analyse and exploit data – providing the platform for informed decisions and practical actions that enhance efficiency, improve productivity, boost business growth and benefit peoples’ lives.

The IoT is one of the fastest moving, most enthralling fields in technology today. Collecting, exchanging, analysing and exploiting data through networks incorporating all kinds of sensor- and internet-enabled devices and objects, it offers huge potential to boost business – and not just for companies harnessing the technologies but for those supplying them too, and the Hartree Centre is at the forefront of this field.

Contact

Marion O’Sullivan
STFC Press Office
Tel: 01235 445627
Mob: 07824 888990

Notes to Editors

How to enter the competition

Through vouchers redeemable against the knowledge, facilities and resources of the STFC Hartree Centre – an acknowledged centre of excellence in the development, testing and application of IoT technologies – this competition offers SMEs an outstanding chance to drive maturing projects forward by utilising world class data specialists and technical experts.

• If you’ve developed a device with potential for IoT workflows to be built around it; or
• If you need expert analysis of data streams generated by an existing sensor network; or
• If your early stage IoT-compatible device now requires the next stage of development…

…then all you need to do is complete the application form, which can be downloaded from the website and submit it to us by Friday 20th November 2015. Winning the vouchers could be the perfect way to accelerate a sound business idea that contributes to the IoT’s continued evolution and the transformational benefits it offers in terms of efficiency, productivity and business growth.

For SMEs active in this space, the Hartree Centre is the ideal collaborator, with its creative and productive sandbox environment and extensive range of tried and tested skills in spheres such as device development, sensor build/deployment, workflows and data analytics.

Key application criteria include the following:

• Your business should comprise fewer than 250 people.
• Your proposed project should have clear business objectives and growth potential, should dovetail with STFC’s fields of expertise and interest, and should already have progressed beyond proof-of-concept stage.
• You need to be able to come to the Hartree Centre in Daresbury, Cheshire to undertake the work and related project meetings
• Projects must be commissioned and completed by 31st March 2016. The winners will be selected by an impartial expert panel.

The voucher scheme is subject to special terms conditions to STFC’s standard terms and conditions for contracted work. The intention is that the voucher holder will own and is free to use the IP arising from the project funded by the voucher – with the exception of the IP that relates to improvements of STFC’s background IP and operation of its facilities.

STFC Hartree Centre

Part of the STFC Daresbury Laboratory, and located within the Sci-Tech Daresbury science and innovation campus, the Hartree Centre is driving growth and innovation between science and industry using intense computing.

Every day, the Hartree Centre collaborates with industrial clients and research partners on projects that create insights and value using high performance computing, Big Data analytics, simulation and modelling. By combining one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world dedicated to industrial engagement with access to data scientists, engineers and software specialists, the Centre is enabling organisations of all sizes to produce better outcomes, products and services more quickly and cost-effectively than they can through conventional R&D workflows.

Underpinned by nearly £170m of Government funding, the Hartree Centre is enabling academics and industry within the UK and internationally to solve research challenges, establish competitive advantage and stimulate economic growth.

In partnerships, the Hartree Centre is also developing the next generation of supercomputing architectures and software, combining existing best practice with innovation to deliver faster, more energy sustainable solutions capable of meeting the challenges of data intensive computing.

Twitter
LinkedIn