Glasgow wants to become Europe’s largest IoT innovation hub

The Scottish city of Glasgow wants to become the biggest hub for innovation on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Things in Europe. To do this, it will rely on a partnership between the UK government, Glasgow City Council and the Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC), an organisation that supports tech visionaries on their journey to develop innovative solutions, grow and achieve lasting success.

The initiative will see £2.5 million invested by the public and private sectors in a state-of-the-art facility called “thebeyond“. The partners believe that Glasgow can be a pioneer in technologies that will predominate in the coming decades, such as IoT, drones, robots, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, medical technologies and clean energy, and which will produce considerable economic, social and environmental impacts.

Building on STAC’s success in other areas, Glasgow is expected to innovate in industrial, lifestyle, health, and sustainability technologies. It should bring together up to 100 start-ups by the end of 2024. As a result, the UK’s third-largest city is set to become a testing hub through the support of STAC.

“Glasgow can be a technological powerhouse and help improve lives and businesses for decades to come. By building a technology cluster around “thebeyond” at STAC, we will gain a reputation and attract international investment. This is our goal, both ambitious and realisable. We believe that “thebeyond” will be the largest IoT and Smart Things space in Europe,” says Paul Wilson, CEO, and co-founder of STAC. According to the executive, Glasgow has all the elements — talent, innovation and a collaborative spirit — needed to lead what is known as the ‘Age of Things’.

The project is supported by industry executives with decades of experience in organisations such as Dyson, Plexus, Meta, Blackberry, Motorola, and Volvo Cars. “This initiative will boost entrepreneurship and position Glasgow as a leader in the development and application of important future technologies that will enable it to compete on the global stage,” says Jim Rowan, CEO of Volvo Cars and STAC advisory member.

“This co-operation will help Glasgow become a technology-driven city, with services and buildings fuelled by local innovation for the benefit of everyone who lives, works and studies here. We will enable Glasgow startups to hone their technologies here and then compete internationally, improving our position on the global tech scene and bringing countless new jobs and careers to this sector,” explains Ricky Bell, councillor and deputy leader of Glasgow City Council.

STAC’s role

Founded in 2021, the Smart Things Accelerator Centre is an accelerator that aims to boost Scotland’s Internet of Things (IoT) sector, led by several technology companies. It was conceived partly based on a Canadian programme, the Waterloo Accelerator Centre.

The programme aims to create more than 25 companies in the IoT area and around 750 jobs in three years, which should generate revenues of £750 million in the region and attract investments valued at more than £100 million.

STAC is open to companies that have identified problems and created solutions and business opportunities in the field of “things”, covering the Internet of Things, but also connectivity systems, advanced materials, sensors, machine vision, voice, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, autonomous vehicles, battery/energy, clean and medical technologies.

Candidate startups, including those in the early stages of development or even outside the UK, must apply, which will be followed by a 20-minute face-to-face or video session for a panel of five experts, usually made up of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors.