News story: Tackling urban challenges in Guangdong: apply for funding

UK businesses can apply for a share of £3 million to work with Chinese partners on challenges faced by cities in Guandong province.

Innovate UK has up to £3 million to invest in joint UK-China projects that address urban challenges. These should be in areas such as smart mobility, affordable healthcare and sustainable environments.

The competition is funded in China by the Guangdong Department of Science and Technology.

Tackling challenges facing cities

Projects should tackle 3 challenges facing cities in the province. These are:

  • smart mobility, including CO2 emissions, efficiency in transport systems, mobility, multi-modal transport and connectivity, and the user experience
  • affordable healthcare for an ageing population, using big data to offer patient-centred solutions, integrate healthcare platforms, and deliver high-performance computing services and cloud platforms for health management
  • sustainable urban environments, using smart platforms to monitor and forecast industrial and domestic pollution, energy efficiency and optimisation, brownfield management and urban waste

Chinese cities among most congested in world

Guangdong is China’s largest provincial economy. Two of its cities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, are ranked the 14th and 15th most congested in the world. This could lead to problems such as an increase in chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease.

The number of individuals over 60 is also expected to double in China by 2050. It will reach 15 million in Guangdong province alone by 2020. In a recent national census, 56% of older adults said they were ‘not healthy’, and 17% said they needed assistance with daily tasks.

Funding for the competition is part of the UK-China Newton Fund. The Newton Fund uses science and innovation to promote economic development and social welfare of official development assistance (ODA) partner countries.

Competition information

  • the competition is open, and the deadline for registration is midday 27 September 2017
  • projects must involve at least one UK business working and one business registered in Guangdong
  • total project costs in the UK should range between £350,000 and £500,000. They should last up to 2 years
  • businesses can attract up to 70% of their total project costs
  • a briefing event for potential applicants will be held on 10 July 2017