Hi Gary!
Can you tell me a bit about who Urban Foresight are?
We are a smart and sustainable cities consultancy. In other words, we work with local authorities, national government, tech companies, and developers to develop strategies and projects to transform local services, infrastructure, and economies. People who are essentially looking to implement new innovative services to improve how cities operate or move towards a greener economy.
Who makes up the Urban Foresight team?
We are a rapidly growing company. David Beeton, our CEO, started the business in Newcastle about 10 years ago, and we have grown organically since then. So, there are currently 10 of us here and about 9 people in the Newcastle office. However, we are currently investing £2.6 million to create new green jobs in Dundee, and plan to double our headcount.
Why did you choose to set up an office in Dundee?
About four to five years ago, we established a formal partnership with Dundee City Council. That now contributes to around a third of the work we do here at Urban Foresight, so it made sense to set up a team here.
Tell me more about your partnership with Dundee City Council?
We worked on a programme set-up with Dundee City Council called the MILL (Mobility Innovation Living Lab). It was a part European funded programme that supported Dundee City Council in developing new low-carbon sustainable transport services in the city.
This project had led to other sustainable work with Dundee City Council.
What other projects are you working on?
It’s all quite varied. We do a programme in the Northeast of England around technology for assisted living. We also work with design innovation hubs. Then there are some much broader smart city projects, like working towards introducing 5G and supporting pilots for that.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do here at Urban Foresight. We’re trying to help cities, or people who work with cities, deliver more sustainable solutions, and improve lives.
Come say hi!
You can find us on the 1st floor of the Flour Mill, or you can learn more about us on our website.
