The Scottish Cities Alliance has announced the Smart City projects that will be taken forward across the seven cities in order to transform them into world-leading digital hubs.
Last year, the Alliance launched its Smart Cities Scotland identity with the announcement that it had been allocated up to £10million in European Regional Development Funding (ERDF), which is to be matched with £14million from the cities.
This programme aims to make services across Scotland’s cities become more efficient and greener while making the cities themselves more attractive to potential investors.
The Scottish Cities Alliance, which is the collaboration of Scotland’s seven cities and the Scottish Government, aims to use Smart City technology to transform cities into digital hubs to enable them to become more internationally competitive and boost economic growth.
This programme aims to transform everything from street lighting to healthcare and from public safety to controlling energy use to make life smarter using open data.
Glasgow leads on the Smart Cities programme for the Alliance and Scotland’s Smart Cities will use the learning and experience and build on the work of Glasgow’s award-winning Future City Glasgow programme, which created a world-leading Operations Centre catapulting the city to the forefront of Smart Cities technology.
Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Future City Glasgow, said: “Glasgow, as lead city for this programme in Scotland, worked with our partners across the country both to submit this bid and show how the use of data can benefit us all socially and economically. Our success in pioneering smart city technologies is something we will continue to build on to deliver transformed services for residents, businesses and visitors.”
Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Keith Brown announced the European Regional Development Funding at the inaugural Smart Cities Scotland launch last year.
He said: “Through the Scottish Cities Alliance we are working to boost Scotland’s cities and make them smarter.
“That’s why I’m pleased to see this programme move into its delivery phase with the wide range of projects announced today set to make our cities more efficient and greener, as well as more attractive to potential investors.
“This £24 million investment will use Smart City technology to transform our cities into world-leading digital hubs which will improve services and empower residents. I look forward to seeing how it can make our cities more internationally competitive and boost economic growth.”