Manchester takes the lead among European 'Smart Cities'

Manchester has been chosen to lead a £2 million Europe-wide ‘Smart Cities’ internet initiative.

A Manchester City Council-led bid has won European funding to involve the city's residents and businesses in testing new internet-based services and applications (apps) to improve the environment and their quality of life.

The city also hopes that its lead role in the initiative will help attract new investment and jobs from high-tech companies as the city becomes a 'Living Lab' test bed for new future internet services.

The Smart Innovation and People project (SMART-IP) - which kicks off this month and will run for two years - will bring together Manchester City Council, leading researchers from the University of Manchester on future internet services and the award-winning community reporters programme run by city charity People's Voice Media.
 
The Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) will lead the work on behalf of the Council and will work with the University of Manchester to distribute internet-linked monitoring devices which people can use to send live information through wireless connections while they are walking, cycling or using public transport in the city.

Manchester residents will be encouraged to test out new internet devices which monitor the environment and feed back real-time information about environmental conditions such as air quality and temperature, traffic congestion, bus and tram availability and give their own views about how these challenges can be tackled via social media.

The information received, and the views of people living and working in the city, will be used to help the Council and transport operators to improve the planning and delivery of services.

People's Voice Media will train residents and workers in the city to be environmental community reporters and discuss their ideas for innovation and web improvements through blogs and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Manchester will be working closely with other leading 'Smart Cities' across Europe including Ghent (Belgium), Cologne (Germany), Bologna (Italy) and Oulo (Finland) to bring the benefits of future internet services to their residents and businesses.

The European Commission has also asked Manchester to chair a new working group which will co-ordinate Smart Cities projects taking place across the continent.
 
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, said: "An innovative spirit runs through Manchester's history and we welcome the fact that the city will take a leadership role in this Smart Cities project which will harness the latest technology to our goal of becoming the greenest city in the UK.

"This initiative will complement our Greater Manchester Strategy which sets out our ambitious vision for the city region by 2020. The future internet project will build on our Next Generation Access Broadband plans to provide ultra-fast connection speeds and ensure that local residents have a direct say in how we develop new services as a smart city of the future."