IRIS is a HORIZON 2020 EU funded project beginning October 2017 for a duration of five years.
The project has been developed around three lighthouse cities - Utrecht (The Netherlands, coordinator), Nice (France), and Gothenburg (Sweden) - who will work as collaborators and test-beds for follower cities Vaasa (Finland), Alexandroupolis (Greece), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain) and Focsani (Romania).
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.
Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, with approximately 540,000 inhabitants, is one of the frontrunners of Europe in terms of smart strategies and urban digital transformation. We caught up with Jean-Charles Maleysson to talk about their role as a lighthouse city for the IRIS Smart Cities project.
This autumn, the city of Utrecht will be home to the international Climate Planet Exhibition. From 6 October to 3 November a 24-meter-high globe will tower above the Utrecht Jaarbeursplein, attracting an estimated 70.000 visitors to create awareness and debate over climate change. A circle of containers surrounds the globe, portraying the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This autumn Gothenburg has the opportunity to be named Europe's Innovation Capital 2018 by the European Commission. The city's focus on test beds and Science Parks, where broad collaborations pave the way for new innovations, has qualified it as one of twelve finalists in the iCapital Award competition. Next week, several of the city's innovation initiatives will be presented in Brussels 10 October and the winner crowned in Lisbon on 6 November.