Entries invited for global smart city resilience challenge

“Prior to the pandemic, most cities thought of smart city solutions or even innovation itself as a ‘nice to have,’ however, one positive outcome of this global health crisis is that it helped cities to see that such innovative solutions are actually a must have,” said Michael Lake, president and CEO of Leading Cities. “Local communities must accept the challenge facing them – either become more resilient, more sustainable, and more equitable or pay a devastating price for the status quo.”

The city of Gainesville, Florida, is Leading Cities’ sponsor of this year’s AcceliCITY Smart Challenge. City leaders focused the challenge on addressing urban food issues. From urban agriculture and food packaging to consumption and waste, this challenge will provide the winning start-up with a paid pilot project to address the needs of the Gainesville community. 

“We value opportunities like the Smart City Challenge that will help the City of Gainesville reach its goals to deliver a sustainable food system to our neighbours,” said Sheyla DeSantana, City of Gainesville smart city coordinator. “Leading Cities’ assistance in identifying candidates ready to implement pilot projects will be invaluable to meet the needs of our challenge area,” she said. 

“We value opportunities like the Smart City Challenge that will help the City of Gainesville reach its goals to deliver a sustainable food system to our neighbours”

Previous organisations to win the challenge include Pharem Biotech, which removes pharmaceuticals and other organic micropollutants that pass through wastewater treatment facilities; Bioo, which leveraged innovative technology solutions to address climate change; and DrugViu, which aimed to solve for greater health equity for minorities. 

All semi-finalists and finalists will receive additional resources and access to valuable connections to help scale their initiatives globally, including membership to Leading Cities’ virtual co-working space, LaunchPad 11, that claims to be a world-first and clusters start-ups, corporations, industry experts, investors and city leaders from around the world daily in one virtual community.  

Leading Cities aims to drive resilience and sustainability by unleashing the potential of the world’s cities by connecting cities across the globe with innovations and insights. 

QBE AcceliCITY leverages the Leading Cities network of forward thinkers in the public, private, academic, and non-profit sectors to advance innovation in local governments. The programme seeks to lower the cost and risk of innovation for start-ups as well as cities and corporations by streamlining the innovation and sales cycles for smart city solutions.

To apply or find out more about the challenge, visit www.accelicity.com.