The SCIS team is working on the assessment of the first Smart Cities and Communities Horizon 2020 projects. The analysis of projects is under way - on a technical, financial, and policy level. Key information SCIS will provide is the potential for replication of the solutions developed by the projects, as well as an analysis of the barriers the projects encountered.
Some of the lessons are sobering, with projects unable to reach their objectives due to regulatory changes, despite their technical merits. Other projects have had to overcome legal barriers affecting their design and performance. Even changes in the average temperatures experienced in the last years have affected the technical needs for the same project in the same region, which means that replication requires a customisation of the project to local circumstances in all domains - from the technical to the regulatory needs.
But rather than only listing the barriers we are seeking for results to those barriers across the EU. The first analysis will be presented at events starting from September.
In parallel to the analysis of projects, we are developing a database with examples of barriers and results. The aim is to present the solutions found to a large number of barriers that projects across Europe and beyond have encountered. In the fully functional website which we will launch in autumn, there will be the opportunity for users to upload information of other examples of problems encountered and solutions provided. This database should in time become populated with many options to guide project developers facing any of the problems listed.