Wednesday 26 October 2016

CATCH project joins Sheffield startups and entrepreneurs to come together to drive innovation



CATCH project NANA joined entrepreneurs and startups in revealing new solutions which will re-energise Sheffield and help its residents live independently at an event on Thursday 29th September.

The ’Demo Day’, which which took place at Sheffield Hallam University, showcased innovative ideas that have been developed in the city over the past year as part of the Sheffield Smart Lab programme.

The Sheffield Smart Lab initiative, a partnership between Sheffield City Council, Amey and the Ferrovial Services Centre of Excellence for Cities, invited entrepreneurs and startup businesses to submit ideas that would help to address the two different challenges.
Over 50 ideas were received from entrepreneurs and startup businesses around the world, which were narrowed down to just nine winning solutions.  NANA, a system that monitors the nutritional intake and cognitive function of older adults, was one of the nine winning solutions.

The winning entrepreneurs and startups were awarded with an incubation and acceleration programme, sponsored by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, and the opportunity to develop their solutions in the city.

They presented their developed solutions at the Demo Day event, showing how their solutions can benefit Sheffield’s residents and visitors.

Simon Butler, Centre Manager for CATCH, who, alongside PhD student Jake Andrews, presented NANA at the event said “it is a fantastic endorsement of the potential of NANA that it was selected as one of the nine winners of the Sheffield Smart Lab. Winning this competition has allowed us to start working on a trial of the system in Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust services that offer short term care and rehabilitation to older people who have experienced a period of ill health or have been in hospital.”

Cllr Leigh Bramall, deputy leader and cabinet member for business for Sheffield City Council, said: “As a council, it is important to us that we drive innovation in Sheffield. There’s an energy and appetite for it in the city and we recognise that in order to do this we need to partner with startups and innovators.

“That’s what Sheffield Smart Lab is all about and by supporting entrepreneurs and helping them to build on their ideas and making them a reality; we have benefited both them and the city.

“The challenges that the solutions solve are hugely important to Sheffield and this has given us a great opportunity to offer a better quality of life for the people of Sheffield and attract visitors to the city centre.“

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