Work with our technical team to help you develop your concept to prototype.

Teams at the Open University and ZTE have a wealth of experience in the technical evaluation of concepts. We will help you understand the technical issues that you face in taking an idea and turning into a new product or service. Depending on your need we will tailor a programme of support for you that includes group workshops and individual support sessions. We will work with you on a journey to prototype your ideas for building new products and services in the digital economy.

Programme overview

Once you have signed up to the CityLabs Programme  you can APPLY work with one of our team to develop a tailored programme of activity for the Tech Evaluation and Prototyping of your concept. This will include a mix of group activity in the form of workshops, hackathons and similar events, as well as individual support from a member of the team to help identify progress, problems and perspectives.

In assessing your application, the team will consider the degree of innovation, the use of data and resources as well as the likely process needed to get to the point of prototype. This will help them to build your tailored support programme, agreeing actions, outputs, outcomes and risks with you.

There is no preconception on the part of the team about the product outputs of the activity, just the expectation that you will engage in a joint process of research and innovation, bringing your own skills and resources to the fore.

In the course of the activity you will follow the development lifecycle of concept, analysis, design, build, test, deploy. The analysis, design, build, test process will be iterated a number of times on the road to deployment.

You will be supported with physical desk space in the lab if needed to remain close to the heart of research innovation.

Any questions simply EMAIL the CityLabs team