The firm delivering a £2 million transport innovation project for Dundee City Council is expanding its city workforce.
Smart city consultancy Urban Foresight helps cities deliver environmentally focused services such as electric vehicle charging.
The Newcastle-headquartered firm set up a Dundee office just over a year ago after receiving a Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant of £150,000 from Scottish Enterprise.
It has recently moved to larger offices in the Flour Mill, as it plans to expand its city team to serve projects throughout Scotland.
Urban Foresight manages the Mobility Innovation Living Laboratory project (The Mill), a £2m scheme that runs until 2022 to make Dundee a test-bed for transport innovations.
Projects being trialled by The Mill include the UK’s largest electric bike sharing scheme, Scotland’s largest smart parking project and a fleet vehicle-sharing platform for public sector organisations.
Urban Foresight director Rachel Beeton said: “We look forward to working on more projects that improve lives, protect the environment and boost local economies, not just in Dundee but across Scotland and globally too.
“Scottish Enterprise supported us to expand to Dundee and create a fully fledged Scottish consultancy team to allow us to work more closely with our customers.
“We forecast to reach 11 employees next year, which is phenomenal considering we’ve grown from a team of one to eight in a year.”
Since establishing the Dundee office, Urban Foresight has helped several other Scottish public and third sector organisations develop their ambitions for smart city, mobility and innovation projects.
These have included a low carbon transport hub project with Perth and Kinross Council and a mountain bike hub in the Scottish Borders.
The consultancy also supported Tayside’s regional transport body Tactran in developing ambitions around mobility as service and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Mark Flynn, deputy convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, said: “We are proud to say we have been in the forefront of innovation and investigation of low and zero emission transport solutions for a number of years and The Mill projects form a key part of that.
“Through this type of successful partnership working, Dundee remains committed to maintaining and enhancing that position for the benefit of not just the people who live here, but people across the globe.”
Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation Ivan McKee visited Urban Foresight’s Dundee office on Friday to learn more about the firm’s various eco-friendly projects.
rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk
