New three-year agreement between Imperial, Cisco and UCL will create a Future Cities Centre in the capital - News

By Laura Gallagher
Thursday 10 November 2011

London is becoming a global leader in future cities research, after Imperial College London, Cisco and UCL today entered into a three year initial agreement to create a Future Cities Centre in the capital.

The centre will be a physical space in Shoreditch where businesses, academics and start-ups can openly collaborate. It will be part of Tech City, which is the fastest growing technology cluster in Europe, and it will seek to bring a world-leading research presence and collaborative working to the emerging Tech City ecosystem.

The Future Cities Centre will focus on the thematic areas of Future Cities and Mobility, Smart Energy Systems, the Internet of Things and Business Model Innovation. It will form a major node of Cisco’s National Virtual Incubator, which is a sustainable public technology network that promises to stimulate entrepreneurship by connecting physical sites through IT infrastructure.

Under today's agreement, new Research Associates from Imperial and UCL will co-locate in the new facilities, where they will embark on new research activities whilst also drawing on the institutions' existing research excellence.

At Imperial, researchers are already working on two major research programmes that are exploring how cities can become more intelligent and sustainable. The Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) is looking at issues such as dramatically reducing cities' carbon consumption and improving energy and transport infrastructure. The Digital Cities Exchange is investigating how digital technologies can boost the capabilities of the energy, health, transport and utility resources in our cities.

Professor John Polak, Director of Research, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Chairman, Centre for Transport Studies at Imperial College London said: "The Future Cities Centre will be a new research powerhouse to drive the Tech City initiative. Working in collaboration with Cisco and UCL, Imperial's internationally leading researchers in the areas of infrastructure, transport, energy, ICT and business will develop new ideas for making our cities smarter, more resilient and more sustainable. By linking to some of our major research initiatives focused on cities, such as the Climate KIC and the Digital City Exchange, we will address key national priorities such as climate change and digital innovation."

Professor David Gann CBE, Deputy Principal Research and Business Engagement, Imperial College Business School, said: "Understanding users and markets for new services and creating entrepreneurial capabilities will be done in tandem with developing engineering systems and technologies. This combination will fuel the business models that we need for jobs and growth in the digital economy."

The researchers aim to develop new ideas for making cities smarter, more resilient and more sustainable

Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, said: "Today's announcement from Cisco, UCL and Imperial that they are collaborating to establish a Future Cities Centre is very important for Tech City, and for innovation in the UK more generally. Harnessing the extraordinary power of our research communities, and the innovation and commercialisation potential that comes from working with great companies likes Cisco, holds great potential for growth."

Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost (Enterprise) of UCL said: "UCL is delighted to enter into this exciting new collaboration with Cisco and Imperial College London. It is well accepted that ICT revolution has the potential to transform more traditional industries such as infrastructure, utilities, energy, transport, healthcare and others and this represents an enormous new multi-trillion dollar market. The establishment of this Future Cities Centre will allow us to combined the world leading research strengths of our respective organisations to realise this opportunity which will play a key role in economic recovery and growth for the UK."