News

IT innovation, research and development

March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20
Estonia offers digital tools to countries struggling with coronavirus school closures

Government and tech companies in Baltic state unite to offer advanced digital learning tools to other countries
March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20
Employment and investment in UK tech sector booms

UK digital tech sector continues rapid growth in 2019, attracting record investment for another year
March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20
Swedish municipalities test AI to drive efficiencies and cost savings

Research in Sweden measures the benefits of using artificial intelligence in local government operations
March 13, 2020 13 Mar'20
Councils awarded £1.2m in innovation funding

Six councils will each get up to £350,000 for digital innovation projects aiming to improve services for residents, in the latest round of the Local Digital Fund

March 13, 2020 13 Mar'20
Budget 2020: Full of promises, but is it enough?

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget provided plenty of cash for technology and innovation, but has the government done enough to make the tech industry happy?
March 13, 2020 13 Mar'20
US Department of Defense requests time to re-evaluate section of AWS and Microsoft JEDI bids

The Department of Defense is to request a resubmission of information from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services about their JEDI bids, as the long-running US cloud procurement saga drags on
March 12, 2020 12 Mar'20
IT Priorities 2020: Nearly two-thirds of Nordic IT leaders expect a budget increase this year

Nordic IT leaders are expecting budgets to rise as they move to more advanced stages of their digital transformations
March 12, 2020 12 Mar'20
IT Priorities 2020: Benelux organisations and budgets focused on digital transformation

IT leaders in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg expect bigger budgets this year, with spending on digital transformation projects and related technologies being prioritised
March 11, 2020 11 Mar'20
Cross-regulator taskforce on digital economy announced in 2020 Budget

UK regulators will join forces to look at how the potential regulation of the digital platforms and advertising markets would work
March 11, 2020 11 Mar'20
Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s 2020 Budget pumps £22bn into R&D

The 2020 Budget pledges to increase research and development funding to £22bn a year, £5bn for broadband roll-out and £900m to ensure UK businesses lead the way in “high-potential technologies”, but slashes tax relief for entrepreneurs

March 11, 2020 11 Mar'20
NHS partners with Google to improve health information online

Latest measures will ensure direct access to NHS advice for more than 250 most-searched health conditions
March 10, 2020 10 Mar'20
GDS works on joining up government services

The GDS is assembling a business case as information about the impact of disjointed government offerings is gathered
March 09, 2020 09 Mar'20
TechUK lays out proposals for Spring Budget

Trade body TechUK sets out its view on how to accelerate UK growth through technology in its submission to the March 2020 Budget
March 06, 2020 06 Mar'20
Oliver Dowden: UK can be “unashamedly pro-tech nation”

The secretary of state spoke about the country's opportunity to “unleash all the innovation and enterprise that emerging technologies can provide”
March 05, 2020 05 Mar'20
Boots and Tesco loyalty card schemes plagued by security issues

High-street retailers deal with fraudulent attempts to access the accounts of thousands of customers
March 04, 2020 04 Mar'20
5G security is a concern for most companies

A study has found that decision-makers fear that 5G technology will make organisations more vulnerable to cyber attacks and will raise security-related costs
March 04, 2020 04 Mar'20
Interview: Building a robot to navigate the high seas

In 1620, the Mayflower set sail to the New World. We speak to the tech lead of an autonomous ship that has been built to make the same voyage
March 02, 2020 02 Mar'20
NHSX appoints chief information officer

Sonia Patel is the latest senior appointment at the digital unit of the National Health Service
March 02, 2020 02 Mar'20
Nordic lessons on digital transformation

Swedish financial services firm reports a successful IT outsourcing project with India-based IT services company
March 02, 2020 02 Mar'20
How Asia’s tech firms are helping to stem the Covid-19 outbreak

Data analytics and robots are being deployed in China and other Asian countries that have been hardest hit by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak
February 28, 2020 28 Feb'20
Student Loans Company to enlist IT suppliers for £200m transformation plan

Suppliers are being sought to support intended improvements to Student Loans Company's customer interface and technology estate
February 27, 2020 27 Feb'20
IBM seeks developers to tackle climate change with open source technology innovations

IBM and its ecosystem partners are calling on developers worldwide to help develop innovative technologies to help combat climate change
February 27, 2020 27 Feb'20
NHSX launches Tech Plan vision

The strategy will see a phased approach to the delivery of digitisation in the healthcare sector, with delivery kicking off this summer
February 26, 2020 26 Feb'20
NHSX publishes first progress report since launch

Digital unit for the National Health Service outlines achievements in areas such as the NHS App and artificial intelligence and gives clues about future milestones
February 25, 2020 25 Feb'20
Boots to trial private e-prescriptions

The pharmacy chain is trialling the service, underpinned by Doctor Care Anywhere technology, in 20 London stores
February 25, 2020 25 Feb'20
Department for Education publishes tools to support learning at home

The Department for Education publishes apps featuring innovations such as artificial intelligence aimed at helping parents to use technology to create positive learning environments
February 24, 2020 24 Feb'20
Estonia to give citizens Alexa-like access to public services

The Estonian government is working on a project that will ultimately allow citizens to ask Siri, Alexa or almost any other virtual digital assistant to interact with government departments on their behalf
February 24, 2020 24 Feb'20
Executive interview: Innovation requires radical choices

Is IT innovative? Would a tech executive scrap an idea that took months to develop, and start afresh? True innovation requires a culture change
February 21, 2020 21 Feb'20
Scotland to set up payments service for public sector

Scottish government seeks supplier to work on beta phase of development
February 21, 2020 21 Feb'20
F-Secure’s AI reads mean tweets to fight abuse and trolls

Researchers working on F-Secure’s Project Blackfin have developed a model for clustering tweets to help pinpoint abuse and harassment
February 20, 2020 20 Feb'20
EU defies big tech firms and proposes single data market

The European Commission outlines actions needed to enable the continent's digital success
February 20, 2020 20 Feb'20
Skymind has big plans for AI in ASEAN

Skymind Global Ventures’ $800m fund to tap artificial intelligence potential and talent includes focus on ASEAN’s AI ecosystem
February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20
Refinitiv uses Google Cloud to revolutionise delivery of huge datasets

Financial data giant is expanding delivery of its services in the cloud, removing the need for customers to use hard disks and trucks to transport large datasets onsite
February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20
Swedish consumer-protection legislation will hit fintechs

New financial regulation to protect consumers from agreeing to unnecessary credit will force financial technology companies to make changes to their products
February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20
Data sharing between private healthcare and NHS to move into new phase

A consultation has been launched to seek views on the creation of a single source of healthcare data in England, with a series of pilots announced
February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20
Air transport industry examines blockchain that could boost revenue by $40bn

Businesses supplying aircraft parts and maintenance services are collaborating to investigate the potential of blockchain technology to improve logistics
February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20
Dutch tech firm transforms real-life football through video game concept

Tech company that helped the Belgian football team in the last World Cup is changing the way footballers are scouted and teams are trained
February 18, 2020 18 Feb'20
Untrusted security teams being left out of business decisions

Only a third of organisations are involving their cyber security function at the planning stage of business initiatives
February 18, 2020 18 Feb'20
Swedish council tests virtual reality in care for vulnerable people

Local authority is testing virtual reality technology to provide care services to vulnerable groups such elderly and disabled citizens
February 17, 2020 17 Feb'20
Government invests in tech to tackle traffic congestion

Councils and SMEs will get a share of £1.5m government funding to work on trials aimed at improving driving conditions
February 14, 2020 14 Feb'20
Smart use of data takes Dutch railways further

De Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), ensures, among other things, that 1.2 million train passengers arrive at their destination every day. Through a subsidiary, it’s using data to improve both the customer experience and internal processes
February 14, 2020 14 Feb'20
Nearly three-quarters of C-suite see visibility into network as business driver

C-suite decision-makers say businesses must rethink what is possible to survive and that technology, particularly the network, must be an enabler in the process
February 14, 2020 14 Feb'20
CIO Interview: Siim Sikkut, Estonian government CIO

Siim Sikkut is one of a generation of tech native Estonians, who is turning his knowledge and experience to transforming government services
February 14, 2020 14 Feb'20
PM Johnson shuffles technology and digital ministers again

Boris Johnson has changed all the key Cabinet appointments responsible for tech and digital policy for the second time since becoming prime minister last year
February 13, 2020 13 Feb'20
IR35 private sector reforms: IT contractors weigh up their post-April 2020 work options

There are eight weeks to go until the IR35 reforms come into play for the private sector, but the IT contractor community is already feeling the effects of HMRC’s latest disguised employment clampdown
February 12, 2020 12 Feb'20
Half of technology workers want to find a new job in 2020

Better pay and work/life balance are major reasons for tech workers to seek a new job, according to a new study
February 12, 2020 12 Feb'20
Accenture’s tech vision draws inspiration from Black Mirror

Last year’s “Bandersnatch” Black Mirror episode on Netflix highlights a new opportunity for business, according to Accenture
February 12, 2020 12 Feb'20
Adult social care organisations get £4.5m in funding for digital

A group of 16 local authorities was selected to receive the grant from NHS Digital to fund digital projects for adult social care
February 10, 2020 10 Feb'20
Two-thirds of workers at risk of robot-driven redundancy are unaware of the threat to jobs

People who do jobs that are most likely to be automated through technology are unaware and unprepared of the impending threat to their livelihoods, with Nesta calling on the government to do more to up-skill those at risk
February 10, 2020 10 Feb'20
Scotland makes inroads in digital identity project

The government has started building a prototype of what is planned to be a "user-centric" platform to access public services online