News story: Round 3 GovTech Catalyst challenges announced today

The third round of GovTech Catalyst challenges were announced today. The GovTech Catalyst is the £20 million fund set up to help private sector innovators tackle public sector problems.

At the Government ICT conference today, Minister for Implementation Oliver Dowden announced the next 5 successful challenges from public sector organisations to get funding.

These challenges are:

1. How will we manage autonomous vehicles in local traffic management control systems?
2. How might we proactively monitor the condition of social housing using sensors?
3. How might we better use and understand Scottish land protected for nature and conservation?
4. How might we better predict and sequence adult social care to deliver a seamless service?
5. How might we accelerate the building of new housing using better geospatial intelligence?

See the full list of all Round 3 submitted challenges, both successful and unsuccessful.

Apply to the first competition

These 5 challenges will be launched as Small Business Research Initiative competitions for tech companies.

The first competition will launch on 4 March 2019 on the Innovation Funding Service.

Join the mailing list to find out about competition briefing events for interested tech companies.

Update on the other challenge rounds

We expect to launch at least 15 competitions to the market. Here’s a summary of the current status of the three rounds of competitions.

Round 1

In January, tech firms finished phase 1 for the first competition (identifying terrorist still imagery).

Tech firms are currently working on phase 1 for the second (smart waste tracking) and third (combating rural isolation) competitions. They’ll finish in February and March, respectively.

Tech firms started work on the fourth competition (real time traffic management) earlier this month.

Tech firms will start work on the fifth competition (improving local services with data) in mid February.

Round 2

The sixth competition (real-time tracking for firefighter safety) winners were chosen earlier this month. Tech firms selected will start at the end of February.

The seventh competition (streamlining public sector audits) closed earlier this month. Submissions are currently being assessed.

The eighth competition (better detection of illicit goods in the post) closes tomorrow.

The ninth competition (better understanding of overlaps in business regulation) launched last week. You can register until 20 February 2019.

The tenth competition (prescription continuity when people move between care providers) will launch in February.

Round 3

Tech firms can register to submit potential solutions to the eleventh competition from 4 March to 10 April 2019.

Read future GTC news on the GDS blog.