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EIP Smart Cities and Communities, Brussels – 26 November 2013

On 26 November 2013, the European Commission hosted a conference during which city leaders, CEOs and civil society leaders discussed the actions outlined in the “Smart Cities Strategic Implementation Plan” and how to put them into practice. The Commission announced that it will launch an “Invitation for Smart City and Community Commitments” in spring 2014 to mobilise work on the action plan’s priorities. The plan is part of Europe’s fifth “Innovation Partnership”.

Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, in charge of transport, said that the Smart Cities initiative is a great opportunity to make changes happen for less congestion and better business opportunities in European cities. According to the EC’s Digital Agenda, the future of infrastructure and city planning will be based on integrating ICT systems and using big data to make our cities better places to live and work. These new systems will need to be based on open standards for hardware, software, data and services which this European Innovation Partnership will develop.

The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) in Smart cities and communities focuses on those areas where ICT, energy and mobility overlap, and identifies the most effective, common approaches and solutions. The EIP on Smart cities and communities will focus on Sustainable Urban Mobility, Sustainable Districts and Built Environment and Integrated Infrastructures and processes across Energy, ICT and Transport. The Partnership has also identified work to be done related to citizen focus and citizen insight, as well as the development of new business and funding models that will help to deliver the rapid roll out of Smart City solutions on a large scale.

The Commission intends to make available approximately EUR 200 million for Smart Cities and communities in the 2014-2015 budgets of the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, to accelerate progress and enlarge the scale of roll-out of smart cities solutions.

We participated in the exhibition to showcase the iMobility Forum, HeERO and compass4D projects in collaboration with iMobility Challenge project. 

Last modified on Thursday, 05 December 2013

Original author: Lina