On day 2 of the Smart Cities Marketplace Forum 2021, the Action Clusters held six meetings on a number of topical subjects reflecting new developments in the field of smart cities.
An Action Cluster is an assembly of partners committing to work on specific issues related to smart cities, by sharing the knowledge and expertise with their peers, giving added value to their national and local experience and identifying gaps that need to be fulfilled at European level. Each Action Cluster of the Smart Cities Marketplace is working on specific subtopics.
Watch the Action Cluster meetings on the Smart Cities Marketplace YouTube channel:
Action Cluster 1 - Business Models & Finance meeting - YouTube
The topic of this session is “Pre-commercial Procurement of Breakthrough Solutions for 100 % Renewable Energy Supply in Buildings”. This is the first official kick-off of this new initiative. The Initiative collaborates with an EU project that has just started, and therefore, it allows you to learn, participate and even benefit financially from this project.
The panellists discuss the aim, scope, goal of this initiative, as well as the procurement of innovation and tender process. Solutions to problems, such as that around 90 % of existing buildings will be in operation in 2050 with no clear path on how to achieve nearly zero-energy standards in these buildings, are explored and the possible solutions discussed.
Action Cluster 2 - Citizen Focus meeting - YouTube
The panellists of this meeting discussed citizen engagement, which reconnects the dots across multiple policies and research agendas for an inclusive and sustainable future. This topic is further explored in an interactive round table by Serge Novaretti (EC, DG CNECT), Marian Cramers (Democratic Society), Ivan Neirotti (European Youth Forum and the Network of European Youth Capitals and Alexander Wiese (Bankers Without Boundaries).
Speakers of the session discuss the initiatives that are part of the Citizen Focus Action Cluster as well as the steps on how citizens can be engaged in lighthouse projects. The discussion not only involves ways to engage citizens, but also to reach the youth.
Furthermore, the panellists speak about the issue of funding citizen engagement and the time it takes up for people to get involved in projects. The panellists also stress the need for scaling up projects and cross-city cooperation.
Action Cluster 3 - Integrated Infrastructures and Processes meeting - YouTube
What is the future of sharing data? The panellists discuss data sharing, availability, and the importance of urban data for services such as managing public health during the Covid-19 crisis. Research findings, such as Covid-19 driving people from urban to more rural living, or lack of transferability of solutions developed for large cities, demonstrate as an overall topic how the Smart City collaboration and innovation are working in smaller EU cities. This is presented by Trevor Gibson (Smart City Leadership and Development Manager with “Opportunity Peterborough organisation).
Moreover, Professor George Crooks presents the technology as an enabler for health sustainability and hopes for you to implement these lessons and challenges into your own organisation or a city.
Action Cluster 4 - Integrated Planning, Policy and Regulations meeting - YouTube
The meeting of the Action Cluster "Integrated Planning, Policy and Regulations'' is about how it can contribute to the New European Bauhaus – a recently launched innovative initiative. Besides the view of the JRC on this topic, practical examples from the national level are presented during this session, as well as the results of the AC IPPR workshop on new the European Bauhaus: What does an actionable, climate-neutral, and sustainable future look like? What would be the unique contribution of this action cluster? What could we plan TOGETHER?
There is a need to create beautiful, inclusive, and sustainable places in EU cities. The definition of these terms may vary across different European countries.
Action Cluster 5 - Sustainable Built Environment meeting - YouTube
This meeting launches a new Initiative on nature-based cities. One of the projects presented during this session is the VARCITIES – visionary nature-based actions for health, well-being and resilience in cities – that puts citizens and the "human communities” at the centre of future cities' vision. It connects nature-based solutions to culture and scalable monitoring for evaluation and replicability of the project. Eight Pilot Cities (Skelleftea, Bergen, Dundalk, Castelfranco, Novo Mesto, Gzira, Chania and Leuven) will test and implement a series of innovative nature-based actions.
It is followed by a presentation about the Lyon Confluence district - a living lab for EU smart cities projects. The goal of this project is to double the size of the Lyon city centre. Other topics of the session include the incorporation of nature into cities and how this will positively influence biodiversity.
Action Cluster 6 - Sustainable Urban Mobility meeting - YouTube
The panellists of this meeting discussed topics like electrifying public transport fleets of cities, shared charging stations, and shared mobility. A couple of reports, such as the EV City Casebook initiative as part of EV4SCC by Gary McRae, and the overview of the HELLO project, by Olaf Bender, are presented.