Data Mill North

Building Smart City Foundations

Building the smart city is the means to an end rather than the end itself.  We believe in embedding smart city principles in everything we do rather than focusing on separate tech-led programmes.

Our BIG 3 Priorities

Health and wellbeing
Leeds is home to some big healthcare sector organisations making it ideally placed to focus on healthcare innovation.

Housing standards and growth
A growing population, affordable housing challenges and improving digital skills for all are key priorities to tackle.

Travel and transport
Leeds is one of the largest cities in Europe without a mass transit system meaning getting around can be difficult.

100% DIGITAL LEEDS

Approximately 90,000 adults in Leeds are either offline and/or lack basic digital skills. The council’s 100% DIGITAL LEEDS programme will ensure that digital inclusion brings positive outcomes for these people, including financial savings, reduced isolation, better employment prospects and improved health and wellbeing. The council will work with partners and community organisations to identify groups and individuals who will most benefit from the programme.  To find out more about 100% Digital Leeds contact: Jason.Tutin@leeds.gov.uk

Innovation District and City Lab

Leeds is making great strides by working collaboratively with individuals and organisations across the city. The universities, hospital and council are bringing together their collective creative and innovative talent to form a new Innovation District which will attract new research facilities, provide a range of work spaces, create new development opportunities and provide new high-density housing to attract and retain skilled workers.

The creation of dedicated districts or ‘City Labs’ to trial new innovation with a receptive audience is a model being used by a number of international cities. The redevelopment of the South Bank, one of the largest in Europe, provides the unique opportunity to adopt this approach in Leeds.

Everything Open

We believe in everything being out in the open.  That way, we can all benefit from each other’s work and the number of new and innovative services and solutions have a greater chance of multiplying exponentially.  We promote the use of open source technologies and champion the ‘open by default’ approach to publishing as much open data as possible.

Leeds: Data City

Leeds has become the ‘data city’ of the UK.  It is home of the award winning collaborative open data site Data Mill North managed by Leeds City Council, and pioneer node of the Open Data Institute, ODI Leeds. 

The council regularly run their award-winning Innovation Labs which focus on the reuse of open data to deliver new and innovative services to citizens whilst ODI Leeds is the home of the city’s hack events focusing on subjects as varied as saving water consumption to tackling to region’s traffic problems.  Both approaches have collaboration at their core.

Delivering Smart Solutions

Leeds is already at the forefront of using innovative technology and smart thinking to deliver sustainable solutions which will benefit everyone.  Here’s just a few of the initiatives already underway:

Project underway to harness energy from the new waste incinerator
Leeds Care Record to share patient data with those who need it
Smart Parking scheme to identify free spaces and help reduce CO2
New City Cycle Scheme to help people navigate the city
New sustainable homes being built to the ‘Leeds Homes Standard’
£50m UK-first moveable weir to protect the city from flooding

Get Involved!

We’d love to hear from you!  If you’ve got a view on what city challenges we should be focusing on or want to be one of the first to find out about and test out new innovative products and services before anyone else then get in touch.