Smart Cities, Horizon, +CityxChange and IOTA

In July, the press release for Project + CityxChange came out and much has been written about Smart Cities and IOTA at that time. A very good article entitled “Green light from the EU Commission for IOTA and the European Smart City Consortium + CityxChange” was published by Wilfried Pimenta of the IOTA Foundation

The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. This creates an unprecedented pressure on cities around the world to optimise the standard of living for citizens, organisations and institutions.

A city of the future, an intelligent city, uses intelligent and connected technologies to support us in our daily lives. They allow us to save time, use new forms of mobility and breathe cleaner air. In short, Smart City technologies are working to improve the overall quality of life for their residents. Less congestion, smart homes and energy efficient use of buildings are just a few of the benefits. All this is also necessary to take the people in the poorer outskirts of the city and to inspire them for the Smart City project. Because it only succeeds if the inhabitants take advantage of it.

Cities such as Dubai, Singapore, Yinchuan and Copenhagen are experimenting with new technology and digital services to target specific problems that affect their citizens. Copenhagen, for example, has set the target of becoming the first carbon neutral capital by 2025. The city reduced CO2 emissions by 38% between 2005 and 2015.

Air quality, energy efficiency, urban mobility and safety — these are four of the most challenging challenges resulting from urbanization. Air pollution is one of the biggest problems in many cities, especially in emerging markets. It is important to reinvent the cities instead of just changing individual symptoms. The IT and Big Data is only one resource among others and not the sole engine of Smart Citys.

The research reveals that, although technology is important to the development of connected cities, there are other “softer” drivers at play, too — and “The World Economic Forum” identified three that are critical to the success of future connected cities:

1. Citizen empowerment The role of citizens in cities is changing. Many citizens no longer wish to be passive consumers directed by the city, but instead want to be empowered and active participants in the exchange of services between the city, suppliers and communities. Technology is already assisting citizens to get involved with the provision of key services, such as gas and electricity, transport and waste collection. However, we believe that increasingly, city-based services will need to adapt to become transparent, empowering and citizen-driven to meet the needs of communities and individuals. 2. Open and experimental collaboration Truly open collaboration between incubator units and various organisational and citizen partners will be the hallmark of successful connected cities. However, in reality, creating effective collaborations is incredibly hard to do. We need a new and different type of collaborative ethos. 3. Rewarding the intangible We believe that the success of connected cities will also rely on organisations adopting a new mindset whereby suppliers, service providers, partners and other contributors break free from a profit-driven way of operating to embrace a model of collective equity. For example, connected city partners, such as Hitachi, TDC, Cisco and Citelum, work in collaboration to gain rewards that extend beyond simple financial profit. [1]

It is surprising how many projects there are all over the world. These projects have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. [2] If you press the link then you will come to the corresponding website of the project:

The focus on “Horizon Smart Cities Lighthouse projects” will result in integrated commercial-scale solutions with a high market potential, in the field of energy, transport and ICT. And that is actually only a small section globally.

On 6 July, the +CityxChange proposal was formally invited by the European Commission to become a new smart city lighthouse project, under the “Smart Cities and Communities” call of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The project will receive 20 million Euros in funding by the European Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020. In addition, the project partners add 10 million Euros of in-kind efforts to ensure the local implementation of the demonstration projects in Trondheim and Limerick. Expected project start is 1 January 2019. The consortium comprises 32 partners covering the entire value chain for the project. The cities are involved in all aspects of the project. They are supported by two Universities, nine Large Enterprises, two Distributed Network Operators, nine SMEs and three Not-for-Profit organisations. [3]

IOTA is one Partner of the consortium. I hope things are moving fast in the Smart Cities area. IOTA presents itself as a multitalent and we will certainly receive many positive messages here in the next few months.

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[1] Source: http://amp.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/these-three-factors-are-critical-to-the-success-of-future-cities

.[2]https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020

[3 ] Source: http://cityxchange.eu/