Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has announced the latest round of its Future Industries Demonstrator (FID) programme. Established to support London’s Just Transition, FID helps London-based SMEs accelerate and scale technologies and ideas that tackle the city’s most urgent challenges. FID will award £16,000 to five businesses. This year’s theme is: Building Better – Innovating Healthier Solutions.
The initiative is spearheaded by Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Innovation District, whose mission is to drive forward inclusive innovation that responds to the climate emergency while supporting health and wellbeing. To achieve this, the Park unites academic institutions, government bodies, businesses and community members so that they can work in tandem to identify and implement solutions to city life’s major challenges.
FID is funded by the Mayor of London and UK Government through by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). UKSPF proactively supports delivery of the UK-government’s five national missions: pushing power out to communities everywhere, with a specific focus to help kickstart economic growth and promoting opportunities in all parts of the UK. Between 2022 and 2026, FID will have received £1,846,272.49 from the Mayor of London and UK Government through UKSPF.
For this challenge, applicants are asked to respond to the detrimental impact that poor indoor air quality, overheating, damp, and energy inefficiency within buildings has on health and wellbeing. Submissions should be both culturally and environmentally sensitive with a focus on combatting the above issues, while prioritising positive health outcomes for everyone living and working in London.
Each application to the programme, will be evaluated based on its innovation, impact, scalability and practicality, and FID is seeking impactful social and/or technological solutions which have moved beyond the ideation phase. From the pool of applications, 25 successful SMEs will be shortlisted to take part in a hackathon, where ideas will be developed and refined. From there, five SMEs will be selected to receive up to £16,000 to support their innovation and deliver a trial. Successful teams will also be invited to attend four in-person workshops where they’ll receive support to design an innovation trial and validate their solution at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This will be followed by a three-month trial period, during which time they will deliver and monitor their project before showcasing their work at the 2026 Innovation Forum.
Shazia Hussain, CEO of London Legacy Development Corporation, said: “At Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, we believe inclusive innovation unlocks opportunity, transforms problems into solutions, and enables societies to build economic resilience from the ground up. As one of three innovation districts in London, we have created an ecosystem where people, place and purpose intersect – convening innovators, startups, businesses and academics to improve local outcomes and set the standard for sustainable cities worldwide. With over 700,000 London households experiencing fuel poverty, and climate change increasing the risk of overheating in the capital’s buildings, the launch of this latest Future Industries Demonstrator funding couldn’t be more timely. It will allow us to support bold ideas and industry-advancing innovation that deliver long-term, evidence-based solutions for healthy, sustainable buildings.”
