Digital Technology Vs Covid-1

PassageWay’s digital signage software is part of a wave of innovative ‘tech for good’ helping the UK beat the pandemic.

Technology can help us tackle some of the world’s biggest social and environmental challenges, and Covid-19 is no exception. The pandemic has helped accelerate the adoption of digital services across the UK as well as driving innovative solutions to help us combat transmission of the virus and keep society functional in the new ‘normal’.

Tech For Good

Local people and grassroots groups were quick to come up with new ways to help their communities get through the lockdown. And the UK tech sector has been no different – with both start-ups and established companies alike looking for ways to scale up their services or come up with innovative ways to be a force for good during the pandemic.

In the early stages of the pandemic, Innovate UK, the nation’s innovation agency, sought to harness this creative energy by targeting a £40 million competition at the UK tech community. They issued an urgent call to submit proposals for projects and services designed to improve the UK's resilience to COVID-19 and boost economic recovery. The competition attracted a record 20,000 applications and saw 800 businesses receive help to take their ideas to market.

PassageWay, which I lead, answered the call and became one of the winners, receiving grant funding to leverage the existing experience of real-time digital signage for transport to develop software to transform any connected screen into a hyper-local source of Covid-19 safety guidance and information.