Newcastle City Council today launched a new website to showcase the latest smart and sustainable developments taking place in the city.
NCLEUS.com profiles the projects, businesses, and research that have helped the city gain a global reputation for smart city innovation. Newcastle was recognised as UK Smart City of the Year 2019, Connected Britain’s Smart City Initiative 2020, and ranked 23rd on the global IMD Smart City index.
NCLEUS was developed by Urban Foresight and is a product of a pioneering smart city innovation partnership with Newcastle City Council. Over the last two years this partnership has developed more than 25 projects to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services. This includes piloting shared electric scooters across the city and using digital technologies to help vulnerable adults live more independently in their own homes.
NCLEUS also showcases innovative research from the city’s universities. This includes cargo carrying robots for older residents, and the Urban Observatory which maintains the UK’s largest set of publicly available real time data.
Ged Bell, Cabinet member for Development, Neighbourhoods and Transport, Newcastle City Council, said: “Newcastle has a proud history of exporting world changing ideas and innovations. Today the city is embracing technology, data, and new ways of working to deliver better services and improve people’s lives.
“NCLEUS gives visibility to the exciting and innovative projects and companies within the local area. It also shows why Newcastle is seen as a great location for smart city businesses and investors.”
The website was developed by Urban Foresight, which is based on Newcastle Helix. A key aim was to strengthen the city’s vibrant innovation community by creating new partnerships and commercial opportunities. It features a directory that profiles Newcastle’s smart businesses and contributed blogs from companies including The Algorithm People, ProxiSmart, NBS, and Grid Smarter Cities.
David Beeton, CEO at Urban Foresight, said: “Newcastle is a city that is buzzing with opportunities and advances in smart city technologies and services.
“NCLEUS provides a unique resource to share the ideas, insights and people that make Newcastle an ideal test bed for innovative new products and services.”
Any businesses or researchers in the city that would like to contribute to the site are invited to contact ncleus@urbanforesight.org