CapitaLand, together with industry partners , recently opened the Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab in Singapore, committing up to S$10 million to develop and deploy smart city solutions in the Lion City and overseas.
“As one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups with a global portfolio and network of partners, we are in a strong position to bring together key industry players to support Singapore’s drive towards building a smart city,” said Manohar Khiatani, senior executive director at CapitaLand Group.
“This living lab at our Singapore Science Park provides unique opportunities for collaboration and co-innovation with access to an ecosystem of innovators and thinkers, and the community of people working at the park and beyond. Our partners can potentially leverage CapitaLand’s significant scale by piloting their projects at our properties in Singapore and overseas. The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab is also part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that CapitaLand remains at the forefront of technology developments so as to bring innovative and sustainable real estate products and services to our customers,” he added.
Touted as Southeast Asia’s first industry-led lab for smart cities solutions development, the lab is launched with the support of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG).
Located at The Galen at Singapore Science Park, the Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab is envisioned to be a key nexus of business partnerships and opportunities. Some 200 companies in the city is set to benefit over the next three years, with the lab serving as a resource integrator of various ecosystem players - local technology startups, system integrators and global corporate enterprises - to co-create solutions for smart cities, from ideation to testing to commercialisation. This collaborative model provides a platform for local and overseas companies to exchange ideas, identify opportunities for new business models and innovations, as well as facilitate deployment of smart cities solutions.
To date, 30 industry players such as Amazon Web Services, Cisco Systems, Johnson Controls, Microsoft, MooVita, NavInfo DataTech, Schneider Electric, SPTel, TPG Telecom and Vizzio.AI have committed to work with local firms to co-innovate, test ideas in the lab or pilot trials at the 55-hectare Singapore Science Park.
Smart city projects will be around six key industry verticals of advanced manufacturing, digital wellness, intelligent estates, smart mobility, sustainability, and urban agriculture.
“The lab is starting strong with 30 partners including major industry players and promising local enterprises coming onboard along with CapitaLand. These are the new opportunities we are seizing in a digital economy, that will enable us to emerge stronger,” said Jane Lim, assistant chief executive, IMDA, said: “The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab reinforces Singapore's strengths as a deep innovation ecosystem where tech, industry and government work together to co-create and accelerate solutions for smart cities solutions.”
According to Eunice Koh, assistant chief executive officer at ESG, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for sustainable urban solutions that contribute to the building of resilient and safe cities of tomorrow.
“Through the Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab, smart tech providers can work on innovative solutions that have the potential to change people’s lives for the better. For instance, Smarten Spaces, a Singapore SME tech provider introduced by Enterprise Singapore, has been working with KONE on unique innovations that use contactless and other technologies to help building owners and managers provide a safe work environment for their tenants and employees. We will continue to work with our SMEs to tap on such opportunities and find the right partners to scale their solutions,” she said.
