Glasgow wins IBM Smart City grant

IBM has awarded Glasgow City Council a £250,000 Smarter Cities grant to help it improve the delivery of services.

The money is being donated as part of a wider fund being made available through IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge – a programme that will provide $50m (£30.9m) worth of technology and services to 100 municipalities worldwide over the next three years.

Glasgow is the first city in the UK to benefit from the scheme, which gives it access to IBM experts as well as financial support.

"Through IBM's Smart Cities initiative we hope to maximise the tremendous opportunities for Glasgow to develop low-carbon energy technologies, efficient homes, the provision of affordable heat and the creation of sustainable communities," said Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council.

Matheson said some of the money would go towards identifying and assessing fuel poverty needs in the city so that energy-efficiency initiatives can be more accurately targeted.

IBM's review team were "highly impressed" with Glasgow's bid for the grant.

"We selected Glasgow because of its commitment to the use of data to make better decisions, and for its desire to explore and act on smarter solutions to their most pressing concerns," said Jennifer Crozier, director, IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs.

A web site has been created for Smart City winners to log into and compare performance of their implementations with others. IBM's Smart City technology can capture statistics on the performance of education, safety, health, transport, land use, utilities, energy and employment.