The European Commission has formally invited +CityxChange to become a new smart city lighthouse project under its Horizon 2020 framework programme.
Seven cities throughout Europe will participate in the new smart city lighthouse project, exploring technological approaches to becoming energy positive, implementing new solutions to improve quality of life, employing digital services for the benefit of all citizens, and exchanging knowledge and best practice with states across Europe.
The project’s consortium is led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and includes 11 large enterprises, nine SMEs, three not-for-profit organisations and two universities. The cities participating in the project are:
- Alba Iulia, Romania;
- Limerick, Ireland;
- Pisek, Czech Republic;
- Sestao, Spain;
- Smolyan, Bulgaria;
- Trondheim, Norway; and
- Võru, Estonia.
The project partners will deliver €10m to ensure the local implementation of demonstration projects in Trondheim and Limerick, while Horizon 2020 will contribute €20m, with the project due to begin at the beginning of 2019.
What is the ultimate aim of the project?
+CityxChange seeks to deliver ‘positive energy districts’ throughout Europe, which involved producing more energy than is consumed in a given region. The project aims to explore the potential role of local governments to play an active and integral role in the transition towards clean and renewable energy, and to engage citizens in order to involve the entire energy value chain across districts.
According to Wilfried Pimenta, head of business development at the IOTA Foundation, one of the consortium partners, the opportunity to collaborate alongside partners from across Europe and from all sectors of society also could potentially deliver the solution that is needed.
He said: “Smart cities is one of the fastest growing cross-sectorial arenas of innovation for IOTA. Building on our work and partnerships across mobility, energy or data marketplace, these smart city ecosystems bring it all together. The +CityxChange consortium gathers many public and private partners around an ambitious open innovation and co-creation initiative.”
