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Huge global market opportunity for urban innovation

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Charlotte S Charlotte Fernández UKIMEA Press Office,Leeds
18 July 2014

A new report by Arup and the Future Cities Catapult estimates a £200billion global market for products and services that improve the way cities are planned and operated through integration.

The study “How can the UK innovate for the world’s cities?” describes , how the UK is well positioned to meet a growing global market for services and products that address urban challenges (population growth, resource efficiency, resilience, demographic change and disease) and seize opportunities (economies of scale, political autonomy, prosperity and civic engagement).

The study highlights how the UK, one of the world’s most urbanised countries, is producing highly innovative urban solutions and services. From products such as CityMapper, a smartphone app that improves urban mobility, and a wireless electric bus technology, to services such as urban green infrastructure design and innovative financing mechanisms to support urban regeneration. These solutions have emerged from the UK’s ecosystem of business, government and academic capabilities.

Arup developed the report with the Future Cities Catapult to identify the importance of a total city systems approach by looking at spatial, physical, digital, commercial and social capabilities required for urban development.

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We need to start to see each city as one living, growing entity rather than a number of systems – such as transport or energy – that operate in silos and our solutions also need to mirror this thinking. At Arup we have such a diverse mix of professionals from economists and planners to engineers and architects, which means we apply a multi-disciplinary approach to everything we do. If we’re going to solve cities’ challenges, other professionals across industries and sectors need to collaborate in order to create integrated solutions to help cities become more efficient, attractive and resilient. ” Léan Doody Léan Doody Director

The report analyses the current UK ecosystem — including UK business, research and academic and civic organisations – in order to demonstrate its capabilities in future cities.

It reveals that over 32,000 enterprises across the UK are already involved in providing innovation solutions to the challenges posed by the huge scale and pace of urbanisation worldwide and it is estimated that the future cities activity is already worth over £16billion to the UK.

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The UK already has an incredible number of individuals and organisations working to improve the future of our cities. Building on this rich ecosystem – of architects, engineers, data scientists, designers, ethnographers, planners, urbanists, and many more provides an incredible opportunity for the UK to create more jobs, more revenue and to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. ” Peter Madden CEO, Future Cities Catapult