The Digital Sandbox offers General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant datasets in a secure environment, mentorship from industry experts and access to the FinTech Community to help enable experimentation and scaling for proof of concepts.
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Digital Sandbox explainer video
Digital Sandbox
The Digital Sandbox is a service provided by the FCA Innovation Hub, designed to facilitate the development and launch of cutting-edge solutions within the financial services industry.
The service offers participants access to GDPR-compliant data and APIs to explore the art of the possible for solution building, valuable feedback from mentors to refine and optimise solutions and opportunities to become part of the sandbox community and broader FinTech ecosystem.
A typical Digital Sandbox project runs from 3 to 12 months and we welcome applications from all sectors across the financial service industry.
Core features
High-quality data sets and Application Programme Interfaces (APIs)
Marketplace for 300+ synthetic, public, anonymised and pseudonymised data sets and over 1000 API end points. Data scope covers entities, corporate individuals, consumers, transactions, financial statements, loans, credits and investments.
Robust data security protection
Built-in development environment to allow scalable experimentation while safeguarding data assets on the platform.
A collaboration platform
To facilitate diversity of thought, share learnings and foster an ecosystem between participants, mentors and the fintech community.
A showcase space
To enable participants to display their solutions and build business networks while allowing interested parties including the regulators, incumbents and others to observe in-flight testing and gain policy insights.
Apply to the Digital Sandbox
If you are an innovative business that wishes to develop your solutions and gain support on data and community access, please follow the steps to apply to the Digital Sandbox:
How to access the Digital Sandbox
Step 1: Signing up and creating a profile
Sign up for an account[3] for the digital sandbox platform.
Once signed up to the platform, click on the top right image and select ‘My profile’. Upload a profile image and complete your profile details.
Under the ‘Event’ section, you will be able to view all live and historic events and projects.
Under the ‘API providers’ and ‘Datasets’ sections, you will be able to view descriptions of APIs and data sets.
Step 2: Applying to the Permanent Digital Sandbox
Go to ‘Permanent Digital Sandbox[4]’ under the ‘Event’ section. Navigate to ‘Themes’ tab and please apply to the theme your project operates within or is most relevant to.
The application form includes:
- Business details
- Applicant details
- Innovation details
- Future Plan
Step 3: Assessment of eligibility
After receiving your application form, we will assess it against our eligibility criteria[3] and aim to get back to you with a decision within 1 month.
For any queries during this time, please contact [email protected].
Step 4: Accepted to the Permanent Digital Sandbox
Upon success of application, we will set up your project space and a case officer will be assigned to support your project.
Participants are expected to:
- Provide regular progress updates and attend check in meetings
- Maintain and upload relevant documents to your project area
- Provide a video demonstration and summary report at the end of your test
- Participate in survey and provide feedback to the Digital Sandbox service
Eligibility criteria
| Criteria | Key question |
|---|---|
| In scope | Will your product or service serve UK market and consumers? You don’t need to be UK-based however we do expect you to have certain degree of UK market exposure. |
| Genuine innovation | Are you proposing innovation that’s significantly different to mainstream offerings? This could be something completely new, or it could be a new market or a new version of an existing model. |
| Consumer benefit | How does your innovation deliver benefits to the UK consumers and markets? Have you identified the risks embedded within your innovation, and how are they mitigated? |
| Readiness | Do you have resources and expertise to develop your solutions using the data provided? Do you have clearly defined testing outcomes, success metrics, timelines and go-to-market plans? Do you have a well-thought business plan and revenue model? |
| Need for support | Can you articulate what data or support you need from the Digital Sandbox and how will you benefit from it? |
Contribute to the Digital Sandbox community
In addition, we welcome applications from:
- Data providers that wish to display their assets and get feedback
- Industry experts, including but not limited to those from incumbents, scale-ups, incubators, investors and industry bodies that wish to share domain knowledge to support innovative businesses and link to the UK FinTech community
- Academic institutions that wish to conduct research projects to solve novel problems
Evolution of Digital Sandbox
First piloted in 2020, the Digital Sandbox has shown that access to data and collaboration opportunities can stimulate beneficial innovation in the market. Almost 6 in 10 small and medium enterprise participants from the previous 2 pilots have made positive progress including receiving funding and partnership, launching products or receiving industry rewards and recognitions.
You can find out more about the Digital Sandbox pilots here[6].
Following from the evaluation of the two digital sandbox pilots, we launched the Permanent Digital Sandbox service on 1 August 2023. You can find out more about the Digital Sandbox pilots here[9].
