Smart Cities and Living Labs at the Forefront of the Future Internet

CONCORD, the coordination and support action (CSA) of the Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI-PPP) organised two events during the 9th European week of regions and cities. The Open Days 2011 formed the ideal opportunity to disseminate the potential of the future Internet towards the various representatives of the local and regional authorities present in Brussels for this occasion.

CONCORD, the coordination and support action (CSA) of the Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI-PPP) organised two events during the 9th European week of regions and cities. The Open Days 2011 formed the ideal opportunity to disseminate the potential of the future Internet towards the various representatives of the local and regional authorities present in Brussels for this occasion.

These events welcomed several high-level speakers from the European Institutions, amongst them Mr Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau – Member of the Cabinet of European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes, Mr Robert Madelin – Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Information Society and Media, Ms Pilar del Castillo – Member of the European Parliament for the European People’s Party (EPP) and Chair of the European Internet Foundation (EIF), and Mr Markku Markkula – Member of the Committee of the Regions.

The first event, entitled ‘Future Internet, Smart Cities, Coming your Way’ was held on the 11th of October within the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels. The event took place in the framework of the Knowledge4Innovation 3rd European Innovation Summit (EIS), which took place in parallel to the Open Days.

During the first half of the event three of the eight technology innovative integrated projects of the FI PPP-programme:

• OUTSMART of five ecosystems facilitating the creation of a large variety of pilot services and technologies that contribute to services and resources in urban areas (Mirko Presser, Alexandra Institutet),
• INSTANT MOBILITY, demonstrating the feasibility to optimise urban multi-modal transport and mobility using real‐time information from vehicles, travellers, goods and infrastructure (Paul Kompfer, ERTICO)
• SAFE CITY on ensuring safety and security in cities. It collects and defines specific requirements, enablers and scenarios that are able to adapt to available infrastructures to support Safecity functionalities (Judith Pertejo Lopez, Isdefe).

The final presentation was made by the FI-WARE-project, developing innovative infrastructure cost-effective for creation and delivery of services (Jose Jimenez, Telefonica).

During the second half of the event, the current Smart City-pilots, funded from the CIP ICT PSP-programme were given the change to give their views on how we deploy ICT in new and innovative ways that enable them to become ‘smarter’ by developing the smarter, digital, greener and more inclusive economies. The common approach for these projects is that they are structured to enhance the role that the Living Labs approach – involving citizens and business alike in service design and creation – can play in supporting innovation in ICT and Internet-based services – especially for SMEs.

In their interventions, the panellists focused on three questions:

• What concrete benefits do you expect for the cities you’re working with in terms of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth? How user driven open innovation (e.g. Living Labs) can lead to real impact and benefits?
• Which lessons learned from smart cities could be extended to the regional level (e.g. Smart Regions) and how do the solutions change according to territorial and spatial factors and potentials? How can Living Labs bring about the specific potentials of place (discussion on smart specialization policy initiative)?
• How can we improve policy coherence on the ground, interlinking Framework Programme research with the European Regional Development funds (ERDF)? What is the role of Living Labs in this endeavour?

According to one of the panellists, Michael Nilsson, CDT Lulea University of Technology:

“I expect that we prepare the cities for take up of new innovations as there will be no impact nor growth if no one is willing to actually take up the innovations in their cities. This question touches upon pre-commercial procurement, as someone has to bear the risk to be the first buyer to create and foster innovative regions.

A first and mandatory item to have in place is infrastructure i.e. broadband connections everywhere. In my region (North Sweden), we skipped the Smart Cities step and aimed at Smart Regions from the start. Key is to connect people and in our wide region and with a very few people.

You could see ten years ago the true Living Labs spirit growing when the inhabitants in small villages, they didn’t wait for somebody coming to fix their broadband, they were digging them selves the ground and put down the green fibre cables. This process has now to be repeated, but to filling it with content, services, things that people can do on their own and answering a huge need but for a very small group. These are things that the big companies might overlook since customer base is too small.

We should encourage regional and national initiative, which give the universities more responsibility for regional growth and development. Much more responsibility for regional development is now needed in order to provide the universities with tools, knowledge and incentives to be the drivers for regions. “

Both events underlined the importance of public–private partnerships and user-driven innovation as a means to create common European internet-based service platform. Improving Europe’s competitiveness in ICT is essential in order to overcome the economic crisis and to achieve sustainable growth. Although Europe has great scientists and technology, it nevertheless lags behind in internet-based business solutions and has failed to produce successful big ICT-companies such as Amazon and Google.

Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI PPP) is the biggest single project ever funded by the European Union. It has several interfaces with EU’s digital agenda as well as the objectives of Europe’s Strategy for Growth, EU 2020.

You can see the summary of the event on Future Internet, Smart Cities – Coming Your Way, presented by Jarmo Eskelinen, VP of the European Network of Living Labs and CEO of Forum Virium Helsinki.

The European Network of Living Lab is partner in CONCORD (CSA of the FI PPP), a 5-year CSA of the FI PPP.