Over the summer break, we’ve been reflecting on the work Digital Jersey has undertaken over the first half of 2024 – and what’s clear is that, if we thought 2023 was busy, this year has been supercharged.
From championing innovation in healthcare and establishing a cutting-edge framework for data stewardship to positioning Jersey as an international testbed for technology, the work the team is doing here is helping to drive forward critical initiatives that are shaping our island’s future in exciting ways.
And actually, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
We have all the right ingredients here to be digitally successful – a campus-like island environment, super-advanced infrastructure that is truly world-leading, and a highly driven and capable digital community. And there’s more to come as we continue to make exciting advances and put Jersey firmly on the (digital) map.
Data, data, data
One area we’re particularly excited about is data – or rather data stewardship. Data sharing can be a tricky business. It involves the transfer of information – often sensitive and complex – between organisations.
But we know too that data is critical in helping organisations to perform better – particularly in a world where data-hungry AI is integrated more and more into how we work and live – helping them to make more evidence-based, rather than anecdotal, decisions.
This year we’ve continued to make progress with our LifeCycle pilot project – a project that gathers data generated by cyclists and stores that data securely in a ‘data trust’. It’s a really groundbreaking use of a trust structure – rather than drawing on Jersey’s well-established trust laws to manage wealth and property, it’s about applying that legal framework to data.
We feel this could provide Jersey with considerable commercial opportunities, bringing together its capabilities as a trust jurisdiction with its advanced digital infrastructure, to position it as a global leader in data stewardship – at the same time generating a valuable database about local cyclists and cycling conditions.
Our work so far in 2024 has continued to validate this approach, and lay the groundwork for the next phase of the pilot scheme.
And talking of pilots – or rather the lack of them – we’ve also seen some really exciting ‘sky-high’ activity this year in the form of a drone trial. Run by ALIAS (an InnovateUK project), facilitated by Ports of Jersey and supported by Digital Jersey and Volant Authority, the £3.7m programme trialled uncrewed aerial technology, making use of Jersey’s world-class connectivity, including three separate 4G networks and multiple dedicated Internet of Things (IoT) networks.
It’s an example of how Sandbox Jersey is establishing itself as a concept, underlining Jersey’s ability to be a ‘testbed’ environment for new technologies, owing to its campus-like space and high digital connectivity, providing digital businesses with valuable data to help take them to the next level.
Cutting edge trials such as these help put Jersey on the map, with the ALIAS Jersey project being one of only two of its kind in the world – the other belonging to NASA.
We got some really positive feedback from the ALIAS team running the drone trials on how easy it was to connect with the right people here – and that sort of connectivity and ability to collaborate is really important. It’s a key part of our off-island message, that we want to – and can – support global innovators in testing out their technologies.
All about impact
More and more of what we do at Digital Jersey is about applying digital solutions to the wider island community. We’re very aware that the digital sector doesn’t exist in isolation, and our role is about ensuring that digital innovation here can help islanders in all sorts of ways.
An example of that is the CareTech Challenge, launched this year as part of Impact Jersey. It looks to award up to £2m in funding to businesses, both on and off-island, that can develop and deploy tech-driven solutions to address the health, independence and safety of Jersey’s ageing population.
With the application deadline having passed at the end of August, we’ve seen significant interest from innovators both in the UK and Jersey. Judging will now take place over the coming months, with those being granted funding set to be announced at the end of the year. It will be a milestone in how Impact Jersey is doing what it was set up to do – drive impact locally.
With that in mind, it was also really pleasing that our TechAwards in April were our biggest yet, with a record-breaking number of nominations. It was a reflection of the increasingly diverse nature of Jersey’s digital capabilities – from innovative start-ups to public sector bodies to established banking giants – all creating positive impact through technology.
And just as celebrating local digital talent is important, so too is nurturing it. This was reflected in our second ever Tech Startup Bootcamp, whose panel of judges selected ROC – a ‘super-app’, showcasing the best of Jersey – as programme winner at a packed pitch night in May.
Smarter
As we look forward to the second half of 2024 and beyond, there’s one shred belief that continues to underpin everything we do at Digital Jersey – that the only way to improve outcomes and is through the smart use of technology.
That’s why we continue to collaborate, drive skills and training, and bring people together to share in and be part of that journey, to make things better through tech.
Whether that’s through our data trust work – we’ll shortly be embarking on a new event series, ‘Data Trusts: The Opportunity for Jersey’ – or the outcomes of the CareTech Challenge, our aim is to continue to make Jersey a genuinely smart island.
It is the only way forward – and we’re confident that the work lined up for the next six months will continue to make us even smarter…
Tony discusses these themes further in his latest podcast here.
