Pathways to piloting at Australia’s largest urban renewal project – Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge

At City of Melbourne, we’re no stranger to taking ambitious ideas and transforming them into public-realm pilots. From raingardens made from 100% recycled materials driving city resilience and circular economies to creative and unique public furniture designed with data, driving inclusive, safe and bustling social spaces.  

City of Melbourne’s Digital Innovation Challenges are open competitions supporting innovation and collaboration. Since 2018, we’ve been delivering challenges to help us explore the role of emerging technologies in our city, inviting digital solutions that tackle important city challenges.  

From Digital Innovation Challenges come smart city pilots. The community votes to determine the winning idea, which is stood up in the public realm. For instance, digitally enabled community spaces, video analytics sensors to explore safety at a shared city path, and parks with a gamut of diverse sensors feeding data into master planning decisions.  

 By delivering small-scale pilots where the community can see the impact firsthand and input their thoughts and concerns, we’re able to earn trust and understanding before we scale solutions that can help us drive towards a resilient and thriving city. Check out our uniquely open and transparent approach on the Participate Melbourne community engagement website. 

As well as the value for Melbourne, these pilots are creating shared knowledge for the industry and other councils who are also seeking the best applications of emerging technologies for community benefit.  

The 2024 Challenge, the second Fishermans Bend partnership, was open from 16 April to 13 June. We asked, ‘How might technology and data enable city spaces to be more resource-efficient, circular, resilient and healthy?’  

To drive submissions, we ran six events (including data drop-in days and pitch training workshops) and made a range of mentors available to participants. Together with an expert assessment panel, including representatives from six local councils and two universities, we’ve narrowed down the 33 submissions to three finalists:   

Mia Mias Micro Materials Bank: a mobile public installation facilitating the circular economy by Commune and Co / Cirque du Soil  

Melbourne EcoSound Initiative: using multi-sensory technology to help biodiversity thrive by FutureLabs 

Upsoil Collective: healing our relationship with the earth through street-side composting by Zoe Wang 

Each finalist receives $3000, mentoring and support from us to develop their pitch for Pitch Night. On Thursday 15 August, from 5.30pm AEST, at The Greenhouse, 191 Salmon St, Port Melbourne, they’ll pitch and share their bold vision to drive a big impact. A livestream of the Pitch Night will also ensure those who can’t make it in person can participate in this exciting event. 

Following Pitch Night, voting will be opened for two weeks. In September we’ll announce which idea is the winner with the highest combined score from community votes and our expert judging panel (50% each). The winner will receive $90,000 and partner with City of Melbourne to bring the idea to life in Fishermans Bend in 2025. 

Tune in online or head down to Fishermans Bend on Thursday 15 August, to hear three ambitious pitches and vote for your favourite. 

Learn more here

If you’d like to be kept up to date as we navigate new uses of digital technology, follow the Emerging Technology Testbed on Participate Melbourne. You can also reach out to us directly at [email protected].