Singapore Science Park, Singapore
“The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab”
The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab is Singapore's first industry-led lab for smart cities solutions development. The Lab functions as a resource integrator, bringing together industry leaders and players – tech startups, system integrators and global corporate enterprises - to co-create solutions for smart cities, from ideation to testing to commercialisation
Purpose of the Solution
The Singapore Science Park (SSP) is a research and development hub in Singapore that houses over 300 companies, including multinational corporations and startups in various fields. SSP provides an environment that supports innovation and research, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure, and access to a diverse talent pool. Having observed a gap where smart city challenges could not be addressed in silos by industries - due to market inefficiencies, lack of standards coupled with fast evolving technology, The manager of SSP, CapitaLand Group, created the Lab in 2020 to provide a focal point for government agencies and industry leaders and innovators to come together to address and co-create solutions to address these cross-sectoral smart city challenges. The Lab addresses challenges in 9 identified areas: Intelligent Estate, Sustainability, Smart Wellness, Healthcare, Urban Agriculture, Urban Logistics, Advanced Manufacturing, Smart Mobility, and Cloud Computing. Together, SSP and the Lab create a dynamic environment for research and innovation, with an emphasis on driving positive industry impact. The establishment of the Lab marked a significant milestone in Singapore's smart city development, by offering a dedicated platform for local and international companies to collaborate and co-create innovative urban solutions.
Impact
Since its inception, the Lab has hosted over 1,000 companies and 50 government agencies, resulting in over 100 partnerships and memberships formed, with over 75 events and workshops held. It has also given rise to 52 Proof-of-Concepts (POCs), pilots, and commercializations. The Lab's partnerships with companies such as Amazon Web Services, Huawei International, and Rohde & Schwarz added diversity to solutions, while collaborations with startups encourage growth in new industries such as urban agriculture.
The Lab's unique industry-agnostic collaborative approach increases the potential ability to generate new and innovative solutions to urban challenges, that benefit both the industries and society at large. By bringing together diverse stakeholders, it can drive the development of socially relevant, technologically advanced, and sustainable solutions.
Moreover, the Lab's focus on smart city solutions, in areas such as sustainability, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and smart mobility, draws attention to the need for industries to join hands to effectively address some of the most pressing challenges facing urban areas today. These solutions have the potential to increase efficiency, reduce waste, and improve the quality of life.
Overall, the Lab has delivered significant impact and is continuing to drive collaboration, partnerships and innovation in Singapore.
What is innovative about it?
Firstly, it facilitates co-innovation by bringing together diverse stakeholders such as companies, startups, researchers, and government agencies to collaborate on solutions for urban challenges. Multidisciplinary approach fosters the development of socially relevant and technologically inclusive solutions.
Secondly, it provides access to cutting-edge technologies and expertise, through the participation of a wide range of industry leaders, expertise and collaboration, thereby removing the limitations imposed by the perceived absence of capabilities and technical know-how that are required to develop new smart city solutions.
Thirdly, the Lab focuses on a broad range of smart city solutions, including sustainability, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and smart mobility, among others. Many of these areas do not behave and act in silo. These considerations are interrelated and require cross-sectoral understanding and design. Challenge-centric, industry-agnostic approach to addressing urban challenges encourages the development of solutions could serve a broader user group.
Lastly, the Lab's location within the SSP provides access to a dynamic ecosystem of research and innovation, which drives the development of innovative smart city solutions. The Lab's innovative approach to co-innovation, technology development, and broad focus on smart city solutions make it a leading hub for urban innovation and a valuable contributor to Singapore's smart city development.
Who are the main users?
1. Innovators 2. Solution adopters 3. Residents, students, mid-career workforce, SME/Startups 4. Government agencies 5. Smart city developers 6. Industries including facility management, mobility, healthcare, telecommunication, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, hospitality 7. Everyone embarking on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) 8. Institute of Higher Learning 9. Public research institutes, incubators, accelerators
Who runs it?
The lab is run by Airmaker which is a subsidiary of CapitaLand.