Grants Available For “Smarter Cities,” Courtesy of IBM

What Happened

IBM has started the application process for its third “Smarter Cities Challenge,” which will award municipal leaders who have a track record of innovation and collaboration.

What Is It?

The Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive grant program that focuses on making cities more livable. Typically, the program leverages technology and services, donated by IBM, to improve processes and create new initiatives.

Who Cares?

This is a significant program, and 100 cities around the world will have benefited from it. After the 2013 Challenge cycle, IBM will have provided $50 million worth of technology and services to those communities.

How Does It Work?

Typically, winners would benefit from immersive, three-week engagements with a team of IBM experts. The staffers would have a range of disciplines, depending on the issue being addressed.

Criteria

According to program documentation, the applications for the Smarter City Challenge will be evaluated on the strength of the proposal, and the potential for the IBM grant to make a difference. Specifically, IBM is looking for submissions that:

• Outline a Problem: IBM isn’t looking for a solution to be implemented; rather, they are looking for a clear problem or opportunity to explore.
• Prove It’s a Priority: The proposal should be connected to top priorities and challenges of the city; evidence should be provided to demonstrate such prioritization.
• Show Interconnectedness: The proposal should “emphasize cross-system or services challenges.” In other words, these shouldn’t be simple problems—they should be complex issues that reflect the challenges of a city that is really a “system of systems.”

Prior Winners, Examples

For context, here are some of the grant awardees from last year, and the challenges they faced:

• Boston, MA: Project involved complex data mapping and sharing to monitor greenhouse gas emissions; Boston has a goal to reduce emissions 25 percent by 2020.
• Durham, NC: Project involved the creation of data-driven strategies to address the disparity of educational achievement and economic opportunity for its youth.
• Dortmund, Germany: Roadmap for a ‘Dortmund Talent Initiative,’ to attract new businesses to the region and train workers for jobs in a 21st century economy.
• Cheongju, Korea: Reduce traffic congestion and promote more sustainable forms of transit, such as public transit, cycling or walking.

Other examples of recipients and their programs from prior years can be found here.

Apply

You can apply for a Smarter Cities Challenge Grant online. A downloadable application is also available.

Deadline

Applications for grants must be submitted by Sept. 7, 2012.

Other Programs?

The IBM Challenge has been replicated by others, including an innovation grant program called the Bloomberg Innovation Delivery Fellowship, launched by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic foundation. The Bloomberg Fellowship has a similar competitive selection process to IBM, and has awarded $24 million over the last three years; only five cities are selected each year. Gov1 recently reported on Louisville’s “innovation delivery team,” which was created with the help of a $4.8 million grant under this Bloomberg program.

Some states have launched their own challenges, as well. Earlier this year, Massachusetts announced the 28 recipients of a $4 million Community Innovation Grant Challenge, which emphasizes cost-saving initiatives for local governments. Other states, like Texas, have municipal excellence awards; however, they typically come without financial incentive or reward.

For more information on grants and funding programs, keep your eyes on Gov1 or refer to the left-hand column of our Web site, where we track Municipal Grants on a regular basis.