Applications open for Smart Cities Readiness Challenge

Cities worldwide are gearing up to compete and collaborate in this year’s Smart Cities Readiness Challenge.

The Smart Cities Council North America-run competition aims to drive the development of livable, workable and sustainable cities by challenging participants to deliver pertinent, resilient, scalable and replicable projects.

During the challenge, participants must: show they can nimbly respond to changing circumstances, plan to implement “technology enablers that allow data collection and analytics”, encourage stakeholder engagement, demonstrate commitment to the project, have measurable criteria for success, consider data from multiple sources and adapt to feedback, according to the website.

Finalists can earn a travel scholarship to Smart Cities Week San Diego or Washington DC in April or October, respectively, to present their projects and also attend the San Diego Readiness Workshop in April, where 18 cities, the port and San Diego airport meet to “accelerate regional planning”, the website said.

Winners will have the opportunity to further develop their project with the help of the Smart Cities Council and/or other cities and experts and potentially, a grant.

Applications for the ‘Spring Round’ are open until 16 March 2020.

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