The newly launched UK Digital Economy Strategy 2015-2018 will provide £30 million in funding a year over 4 years to support innovation in the UK’s digital economy.
The UK Digital Economy Strategy will help UK businesses innovate by using digital technology, the strategy provides £15 million a year for innovative business projects.
A further £15 million in funding each year has been allocated to the Digital Catapult centre, the Open Data Institute and Tech City UK.
“Digital technology can offer businesses huge reductions in costs; massive trading volumes with low transaction costs; instant global market reach and contact throughout their customers’ daily routine; and insight into customer needs and a direct and personal relationship with them”, the report states.
“New business models, applications and services are emerging in energy management, e-health delivery, traffic management and more, and the added value of IoT services could reach as much as $2tr a year, with 30 billion objects connected by 2020,” the report adds.
The UK Digital Economy Strategy predicts that by 2020, 30 billion wirelessly connected devices, supporting a global digital services market worth as much as the entire UK economy.
The strategy has 5 key objectives:
- encourage digital innovators to develop their ideas and establish businesses
- champion user focused digital technologies
- equip innovators with the right technical and business expertise
- grow infrastructure, platforms and ecosystems
- ensure the digital economy is sustainable
Read the UK Digital Economy Strategy.
