In January 2018, the Green Digital Charter organised the 2017 GDC Award competition recognising the three most innovative projects implemented in one of the 53 signatories of the Charter.
Among them, Dublin’s iSCAPE project, aimed at improving smart control of air pollution in Europe. In order to more efficiently reduce the impact of air pollution, iSCAPE comes out with a mixed approach focusing on 1) the use of ‘passive control systems’ in urban spaces, 2) policy interventions and 3) behavioural changes of citizens lifestyle.
Curious to know more about it? Meet the project’s team in Brussels at the occasion of the Green Week in one of several events listed below :
- Tue. 22 May : Partner event on ‘climate-intelligent city (eco)design: the benefits of urban climate services’
- Thu. 24 May (09:30-11:00) : Session on ‘Air quality in cities; solutions and synergies with Climate Action’
- Fri. 25 May : Partner event on ‘involving citizens in air quality monitoring through Citizen Science initiatives’
iSCAPE will also be among the 20 stands exhibiting during the 3 days of the Green Week Brussels (venue: BluePoint) and will be showcasing its citizens game in the tool room, a special area dedicated to demonstrating various existing tools and platforms helping cities develop in a sustainable way.
Throughout the whole duration of the GuiDanCe project, both physical and online training activities were organised to support signatory cities in overcoming implementation barriers and challenges encountered at the local level. A publication was prepared to report in a simple but efficient way on the achievements and lessons learnt.
Peer-to-peer learning is an excellent instrument for improving the implementation of cities’ policies and strategies. It is based on the idea that people who work on similar issues and have similar roles and working background in their cities can share experiences and learn from each other. ‘Peers’ share a common understanding of and interest in implementing smart and digital projects and policies. In many ways, they ways similar challenges, need to find solutions to similar problems and look for corresponding solutions, projects and alliances.
Untitled ‘Peer-to-peer learning for cities’, GDC guidebook presents six methods of training and peer-to-peer learning, each one with its own strengths and advantages. For each method, the publication explains the format, objectives and different steps to follow for organising a successful training event. Examples from GuiDanCe training activities are there to illustrate all approaches.
Read the guidebook : GDC Training guidebook web
or browse it directly below
Contact person : Nikolaos Kontinakis, GuiDanCe project coordinator, Nikolaos.Kontinakis[at]eurocities.eu
As from May 2018, the new EU general data protectino regulation (GDPR) will take effect. As a direct result, all EU cities are asked to appoint a data protection officer (DPO) and to implement a series of new rules and practices.
On Monday 22 January 2018 in Brussels, the GDC/GuiDanCe project is organising a technical training for cities’ digital experts on the implementation of the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR).
The training will be followed by the conference ‘Imagine the Urban Future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust’ jointly organised by the Green Digital Charter and EUROCITIES’ Knowledge Society Forum (KSF).
Learning objectives?
This training is designed to help EUROCITIES’ members and GDC signatories to understand the concepts and processes necessary for the data management chain within a city administration to deal with citizens’ privacy while delivering smart services. Participants will learn how to conduct a privacy impact assessment (PIA) based on specific and concrete use-cases (dataset, application, service) brought by participants from their own city.
Who can participate?
Participation is free and open to city officers, especially DPOs and data officers of local public authorities;
Your city is facing privacy challenges in the implementation of a measure or project? Bring your example with supporting documents such as datasets. Four use-cases will be selected and presented to the audience.
We are looking for officers with understanding of a particular service or application, e.g. functional understanding (what the service or application does), technical understanding (how it is implemented) and a deployment understanding (who and how it is operated).
To propose a data scenario from your city, contact us by Friday 15 December (COB).
Contact persons:
- Rebecca Portail, GDC/GuiDanCE project support officer at rebecca.portail[at]eurocities.eu
- Antony Page, UrbanDNA (expert & trainer) at antony.page[at]urbandna.eu
Agenda: Programme-GDPR-training_Green-Digital-Charter_22-01-2018
Participation is limited. Register now at http://bit.ly/2BHJnkM.

Iordana Eleftheriadou, Policy coordinator for Digital Transformation, alongside the First VP of the Committee of the Regions, Markku Markkula, at the launch of the Digital Cities Challenge
Launched at the European Week of Regions and Cities, the Commission Digital Cities Challenge is throwing down the gauntlet to city leaders and key stakeholders to make their cities more productive, more innovative, better places to live. They can do so by putting advanced technologies at the service of the citizens.
The challenge aims to select 15 cities with the will to change and unlock unreleased potential, to receive free-of-charge high quality policy advice, coaching and facilitation, from high-level experts with local and international experience. This tailored support will help them to develop and implement strategic plans addressing economic growth and social welfare, all in their local language.
Participating cities will also have access to intuitive assessment tools for digitalisation, innovative training, and a vast networking pool, including fellow cities, strategic stakeholders and Commission networks and platforms. This will help cities stimulate investments through joint cross-regional actions for digital transformation.
In addition to the selected 15 cities, the challenge will support a broader community of cities who wish to participate using their own resources and benefit from the knowledge and networking opportunities provided.
The result will be to give cities a well-developed strategy and action plan to move towards digital transformation and put them on the map as a beacon for future economic growth and improved quality of life.
The call is now open for applications.
To find out more about the Digital Cities Challenge and the call visit www.digitallytransformyourregion.eu
The Digital Cities Challenge is funded by COSME programme of the European Union. COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
This article was originally published on the Covenant of Mayors website.
The calls for the European Green Capital 2020 and European Green Leaf 2019 awards are now open.
The European Commission has opened up the competition to large and small cities across Europe for these prestigious awards, which recognize high environmental records and an outstanding commitment to sustainable urban development. In these year’s editions, both winners of the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf awards will receive for the first time a financial incentive to boost their environmental programmes!
The winner of the European Green Capital award will receive €350,000, while the winner of the European Green Leaf award will receive €75,000. Cities with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants can apply to become European Green Capital, while the European Green Leaf accepts applications from smaller-sized cities (20,000 – 100,000 inhabitants).
Alongside the new financial incentive, winners of the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf awards gain numerous benefits:
• Increased tourism and investment
• International prestige and media coverage
• Membership of an exclusive network of previous winners and shortlisted cities to share ideas and experience towards furthering environmental sustainability
• Application process supports cities in evaluating their environmental progress and benchmarking themselves against their peers
• Boosts momentum to accelerate environmental actions
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella: “The European Green Capital and Green Leaf Awards are becoming increasingly important as we strive to manage our cities and towns against the challenges of population growth, pressure on resources and our responsibilities to manage climate change. European Green Capitals and Green Leafs provide vital inspiration and motivation to help other cities find solutions, on both a European and a global stage.”
• All information about the application process of the European Green Capital 2020 and European Green Leaf 2019 awards
• Applications to both awards can be submitted until 18 October.