Are you an Exeter resident, worker, entrepreneur, researcher, service provider, parent, student or community group who cares about the future of Exeter and the wider world?
Join our online community to get involved in turning Exeter into a world-class sustainable city.
You are invited to join a new online crowdsourcing platform to share ideas and insights about how our problems and needs can be defined, and how we can make our region energy independent and congestion free by 2025.
The platform is part of the engagement phase of our accelerator that was launched by Liz O’Driscoll, Head of Innovation at Exeter City Futures, in a presentation at Venturefest South West at Sandy Park stadium this week.
Innovators, entrepreneurs, and business people from across the region and the UK packed out a talk entitled ‘A venture based approach to whole city change’, marking the start of an annual challenge cycle.
Innovation Community
The Exeter City Futures online platform has been set up as a welcoming space for people to help define the challenges that need to be overcome in order to fix our region’s energy use and congestion problems. In doing so we will be able to deliver a more sustainable future.
The platform will be open until the end of the year, at which point 10 challenges will be chosen that define the top problems which the online community feel need to be solved. We will then open applications for brilliant teams locally and globally to submit their solutions into our innovation programme.
In addition from early next year Exeter City Futures will also be working with residents beyond the ideas community, with school and colleges as well as neighbourhood and community organisations to develop the innovation programme’s reach.
Incubation of ideas
Solutions to the defined challenges can be put forward to be nurtured and grown in the incubation phase of the programme.
Teams of two to four people can apply to join our incubation programme where successful applicants will receive three months of support to help develop a business model that can make real progress towards reaching our goals.
Exeter City Futures will provide co-working space alongside the team and a grant of £15,000 for each idea that is taken forward. Each team will also receive a tailored package of mentoring and support. For more information please visit our programme page.
Anyone who has an insight into a problem that needs to be solved in order to make Exeter energy independent and congestion free by 2025 can join the Exeter City Futures crowdsourcing platform now, and start sharing their ideas. Let us know what deserves attention and investment: help us develop a sustainable future together.