UCL and Amazon create digital innovation centre

The UCL Centre for Digital Innovation will be powered by AWS amd has created an ‘Impact Accelerator’ to boost startups with advice, funding and education.

The accelerator programme is open to startups, research teams and technology spinouts from UCL.

Projects should look to use cloud computing to solve global health or education issues, and if successful will have access to an AWS ‘solutions architect’ to provide advice and guidance.

The centre will be hosted at IDEALondon in Shoreditch, a UCL technology hub and innovation centre that supports startups with space, advice and access to funding and talent.

Graça Carvalho, director at the UCL Centre for Digital Innovation, said: “UCL will benefit from AWS’s ‘working backwards’ innovation methodology and the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering, and we, in turn, hope to support AWS through our strong evidence base that demonstrates the importance of digital innovation within the health and education sectors to increase efficiencies and offer truly personalised intelligent products and services.”

John Davies, director, regional government, UK, worldwide public sector at AWS, said: “By bringing together UCL’s world renowned academic rigour with AWS’ cloud technologies and culture of innovation, we hope to provide healthcare and education organisations with a springboard to help them to address some of the toughest challenges facing society right now.”