The partnership has launched a Data for Local Environments Challenge with the Open Data Institute. This challenge highlights the ways in which publicly available data can be used by local governments to improve their local environments.

Using publicly available datasets and datasets shared or curated by the private sector, participants will explore how officials in cities, counties, and municipalities can more effectively use these datasets to generate insights and solutions to improve their local environments, such as reaching their net zero goals. More about the data challenge can be found here.

The Open Data Institute is hosting three webinars.

January 24th, 2023 at 16:00 GMT – Introduction to the IDSP Challenge and platform

This webinar will introduce the IDSP Challenge and discuss its scope, as well as provide a walkthrough of the challenge platform, Wazoku. The challenge will be explained by Industry Data for Society Partnership (IDSP) partner, R² Factory, together with the Open Data Institute. There will be a Q&A session with both of these organizations, as well as with Wazoku.

January 25th, 2023 at 15:00 GMT – Overview of the IDSP Data Portals: UK Power Networks Open Data Portal and Microsoft’s Planetary Computer

This webinar will introduce some of the datasets available for use during and beyond the IDSP Challenge. Microsoft and UK Power Networks will explain what data is available, suggest what can be done with the data, and what limitations the datasets may have. There will be a Q&A session with both organizations.

January 30th, 2023 at 16:00 GMT – How to use open data

This one hour webinar, run by the Open Data Institute, covers the essentials of using open data, including:

• Where to find data you can use
• How to assess a dataset for suitability
• Tools for cleaning and validating data
• Designing an effective visualisation

We’ll look at the reasons for using (and creating) open data, taking a practical tour through the process with a focus on building something useful, insightful and shareable.