(Birmingham New Street Station undergoing redevelopment. How can digital services complement investments in physical infrastructure to support public transport? Photo by Ell Brown)
For our March meeting, we had useful updates on the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP’s strategy for accessing European Structural and Investment Funding (ESIF), on a Virgin Media pitching competition for entrepreneurs, and on a new “Smart Transport” trial being launched by Centro in partnership with WMG‘s “Hub of All Things” technology platform and enable-ID, a start-up company that’s emerged from Alliance activity over the last year.
Pam Waddell of Birmingham Science City gave a presentation on how the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP is coordinating local proposals into the ESIF funding. You can download Pam’s presentation here. Whilst the calls for this funding will be national, the LEP is doing a huge amount of work with Central Government agencies to prepare local proposals to have the best possible chance of succeeding.
Brian Mitchell of Virgin Media described Virgin’s upcoming “Pitch to Rich competition. A prize of £1,000,000 will be shared between the 10 most successful entrants pitching in 3 categories. Registration is open here until 5th May.
Chris Thompson of Enable iD presented the “MyJrny” pilot initiative launching in collaboration with Centro, which provides a personalised travel information service to travellers in Birmingham. You can sign up to the pilot at http://myjrny.uk/. Chris’s presentation can be downloaded here.
Our next Steering Group meeting will be held on 15th April, and we’re looking forward to hearing about the work of the Canal and River Trust in Birmingham and the West Midlands; and from the Leeds Data Mill who are helping the Leeds City Region explore the benefits of Open Data.
Birmingham Smart City Alliance 
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