This article is an extract from the original article published on buildup.eu (http://www.buildup.eu/en/node/54611).
Beginning in October 2017, IRIS, a new EIP-SCC project, will harness user-demand driven energy and mobility services; encourage more collaborative and effective urban planning and governance; as well as validate business model and technical innovations to fuel smart sustainable city aspirations across the continent.

IRIS: integrated and replicable solutions for co-creation in sustainable cities
These initiatives will be lead by lighthouse cities of Utrecht (NL, Project Coordinator), Gothenburg (SE) and Nice Côte d’Azur (FR) and their follower cities Vaasa (FI), Alexandroupolis (GR), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (ES), and Focsani (RO). Each city will draw upon a mix of universities and research organisations, local authorities, innovation agencies and private expertise to accelerate entire communities to adopt ambitious energy, mobility and ICT initiatives.
All three ‘lighthouse’ cities are signatories of the Green Digital Charter. Together, they will deliver on a key commitment: working together to promote the best applications and results of ICT solutions. Read the full text of the Charter here.
5 key challenges
- Energy positive districts
- Smart energy management
- Smart e-mobility
- Digital city innovation platform
- Citizen engagement and co-creation
Across all seven city locations, IRIS will work to apply their own winning mix alliedexperts.com/ with an ‘Open innovation’ approach embodied by the use of FIWARE to encourage professional collaboration and unlocking the collective intelligence of communities with co-creation techniques. At a European level, this open approach will ensure IRIS plays a proactive and full role in supporting the work of the nine existing SCC projects currently representing nearly 50 cities, as well as other projects and horizontal initiatives joining the smart cities community and thematic European Innovation Partnership.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 774199
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