The Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge is an open competition to support innovation and collaboration, seeking bold ideas that can be piloted in Fishermans Bend.

As well as being responsive to local issues and needs of Fishermans Bend, the Challenge helps to test digital solutions that tackle important city challenges and generates innovations across a variety of themes that are both locally and globally relevant.

Following the success of the 2022 Fishermans Bend Innovation Challenge, and the resulting Remix Raingardens pilot, in 2024, the Challenge theme is A Regenerative City, and covers the circular economy, renewables, climate change, city resilience, urban design and health and wellbeing.

In 2024 the challenge question is:

How might technology and data enable city spaces to be more resource efficient, circular, resilient and healthy?

The Challenge is open to all eligible entrepreneurs, community groups, social enterprises, universities, researchers, start-ups, scale-ups and established organisations to submit brave and brilliant ideas ready for piloting in Melbourne’s oldest innovation precinct.

Launched on 18 April 2024, the Challenge is open for submissions until 13 June. During the Challenge period City of Melbourne offer challenge participants support through events and mentoring, access to Open Data. A panel of judges will determine the top three finalists, who will receive $3000 cash to develop their idea further and 1:1 mentoring from education and training experts 25eight to prepare their pitch for a public Pitch Night in August.

The final vote will be determined by a panel of judges and community and the winning idea will receive $90,000 to be developed and piloted in Fishermans Bend in 2025.

FB IDEAs are thrilled be support this project, and will work with the City of Melbourne and the winning team to find a suitable site to pilot the project in Fishermans Bend.