Twelve companies have been selected as finalists for the third cohort of the Cognicity Challenge, competing in the Connected Home and Virtual Design & Construction streams of Canary Wharf Group‘ s smart city accelerator challenge.

The finalists will benefit from a twelve-week programme located within ‘High Growth Space:24′, the expansion space of Level39‘s tech company incubator, in Canary Wharf’s iconic One Canada Square.

This cohort has been specifically chosen to address the future development of the Canary Wharf estate – including the new phase, previously known as Wood Wharf – which will include residential properties for the first time.

The first phase of this development will be completed by 2020 and innovative Virtual Design & Construction technology will help inform the design and development of this stage in Canary Wharf’s progress towards becoming a truly smart and integrated city.

Innovators in the Connected Home stream will help create differentiators for the residential buildings on the estate, creating the next generation of live-work development at Canary Wharf.

During the twelve-week programme, each of the finalist companies will gain access to world-leading specialists including an expert group of Canary Wharf executives.

At the end of the accelerator programme the finalists will deliver a business plan and pitch to Canary Wharf Group executives and expert judges, with the winners of each stream receiving £50,000 and the chance to pilot their technologies on the estate.

Eric Van der Kleij, Head of Level39 and Managing Director of ENTIQ, said: “The Cognicity Challenge offers these innovative companies a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of their future city technologies and pilot them within the Canary Wharf estate, helping take smart, sustainable cities from concept to reality whilst offering Canary Wharf Group a procurement methodology and pipeline that de-risks the uptake of innovation, both in the existing buildings and the new phase of the estate.”