Manchester and the Synchronicity IoT programme

Manchester joins EU-backed Synchronicity IoT programme.

17:14 30 April 2018

The Manchester City Council is one of the eight European cities to join a project that aims to promote the scaling up of Internet of Things (IoT) projects in urban areas. The Synchronicity IoT programme is offering £3million financial support to encourage councils to come up with IoT solutions that are replicable, interoperable and scalable.

 

Speaking at the launch event, Jarmo Eskelinin, innovation and technology officer for the Future Cities Catapult, said: “Cities do not want to step into monopoly solutions; they shy away from ‘smart cities in a box’ from a single company,” he said.

 

“And secondly, one city is not a market. Even a city the size of London is not big enough to justify the development of solutions that will not work anywhere else. It is too expensive and there would be many solutions with too few users.”

 

Adrian Slatcher, principal resources and programmes officer at Manchester City Council, “We’ve been working with about 15 partners to deliver a number of small scale pilots,” he said. “We’ve been doing things around transport, energy and environment, and to a lesser degree around health and social care.

 

“What we’re looking for now is solutions that are not replicating what we have, but are best of breed, offer something new and able to integrate with the way that people live their lives.”