On 6 July, the +CityxChange proposal was formally invited by the European Commission to become a new smart city lighthouse project, under the "Smart Cities and Communities" call of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The proposal was given excellent comments and scores by the experts, and rated among the very best among the eleven competing proposals.
For the next five years, the cities of Trondheim, Limerick, Alba Iulia, Písek, Sestao, Smolyan and Võru will experiment on how to become smart positive energy cities, that use digital services to improve quality of life for and together with all of their citizens, generate more energy than they consume, and exchange experiences with cities across Europe to learn faster, together.
Under the leadership of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, these seven cities will develop and test new solutions together with an impressive list of 11 large enterprises, 9 SMEs, 3 non-for-profit organisations and 2 universities, covering the entire value chain: IES R&D, Powel AS, University of Limerick, Energy Agency of Plovdiv, Future Analytics Consulting, Research2Market Solutions, ISOCARP, TrønderEnergi 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, IOTA Foundation, NHP Eiendom, and GKinetic Energy Ltd.
The independent experts evaluating the proposal commend +CityxChange for demonstrating and substantiating actions that will contribute to the wide-scale roll-out of Positive Energy Districts across Europe, with a convincing approach to make local governments an active and integral part of the energy solution, engaging citizens in the city transformation, and involving the entire district energy value chain, extending to high level policy makers and cities, universities, large enterprises, distributed network operators, SMEs, and non-profit organisations.
The project will receive €20 million in funding from Horizon 2020. In addition, the project partners add 10 million Euros of in-kind efforts to ensure the local implementation of the demonstration projects in Trondheim and Limerick. Expected project start is 1 January 2019.
"This is amazing news. We have great expectations for what we can achieve in this collaboration," said Annemie Wyckmans, Project Coordinator for +CityxChange and Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Throughout the process, the consortium has received valuable insight and support from the national contact points (NCPs), notably the NCPs in the two lighthouse city countries Ireland and Norway, as well as our Brussels offices.
For more icontact project coordinator Annemie Wyckmans [email protected], Trondheim’s lighthouse city coordinator Silja Rønningsen [email protected] and Limerick’s lighthouse city coordinator Rosie Webb [email protected].
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