The +CityxChange Smart City project, which is spearheaded by the city of Trondheim (NO) and Limerick (IE) along with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), received the €20 million funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Horizon 2020 is the largest EU Research and Innovation programme which will distribute nearly €80 billion of funding until 2020. It promises breakthroughs, discoveries, and innovation by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. With that in mind, IOTA Foundation, along with 25 other enterprises and organizations, will utilize the funds to develop Smart Cities.
What is a Smart City?
Smart City is envisioned to “use digital technologies to enhance performance and well-being, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens.”
Smart modern cities are aiming to empower citizens to participate and provide individualized solutions to the community. Open and experimental collaboration is the foundation stone of one such city. But it is easier said than done, so a new and different type of collaborative habit needs to be devised.
Furthermore, the Smart City is turned to incentivize more non-profit driven accomplishments, as the focus is switched to reward the intangible.
Why IOTA?
“Smart cities is one of the fastest growing cross-sectorial arenas of innovation for IOTA,” said Wilfried Pimenta, Head of Business Development at the IOTA Foundation. “Building on our work and partnerships across mobility, energy or data marketplace, these smart city ecosystems bring it all together,” he explained.
The co-founder of the IOTA Foundation, David Sønstebø seems to be very excited about the project as he stated that “Being able to explore and demonstrate the utility of IOTA within the smart city context in numerous cities across Europe will be incredibly valuable going forward.”
Smart cities is one of the fastest growing cross-sectorial arenas of innovation for IOTA.
The lengthy list of partners, besides IOTA, include ES R&D, Powel AS, University of Limerick, Energy Agency of Plovdiv, Future Analytics Consulting, Research2Market Solutions, ISOCARP, TrønderEnergi Kraft AS, ABB Norway, ATB, AVIS Budget Group, Statkraft Varme AS, ESB Innovation RoI Ltd, ESB Networks, Ove Arup & Partners SAU, FourC AS, R.Kjeldsberg, Smart MPower, Space Engagers, Colaborativa, Officinae Verdi, NHP Eiendom, and GKinetic Energy Ltd.
Trondheim and Limerick will not be the only Smart Cities encompassed by the +CityxChange project. Alba Iulia (RO), Pisek (CZ), Võru (EST), Smolyan (BG), and Sestao (ES) are joining the evolution to reach zero emission and 100% renewable energy usage goal.
This project is not the first of its kind. Barcelona (ES), Cologne (DE), Stockholm (SE), Nottingham (UK), Eindhoven (NL), Manchester (UK), Florence (IT), San Sebastian (ES), Lyon (FR), Munich (DE), Vienna (AT), Lisbon (PT), Milan (IT) and Greater London Authority (UK) are just a few of those who strive to reach the next level of sustainability through similar projects.
Sustainability is the right direction for reaching ecological balance and overall well-being of humankind, and IOTA’s technology can definitely help to carry this unique project in the right direction.
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