Smart Cities aims to create an innovation network between governments and academia in six countries to promote excellence in the domain of e-services (development and take-up) in order to set a new standard for e-service delivery in the whole NSR. The transnational working method (pooling expertise and joint model development) is proposed to equip decision-makers to achieve further innovation in the delivery of e-enabled public services.
Smart Cities is also represented in the DANS cluster.
Duration
01/09/2008 - 31/10/2011
Priority
1 - Building on our Capacity for Innovation
Area of Intervention
1.2 Building the transnational dimension of clusters and research and innovation networks
University of Applied Sciences of Oldenburg, Ostfriesland and Wilhelmshaven
Bis Bremerhaven
The Netherlands
Gemeente Groningen
Norway
Kristiansand
Sweden
Karlstads Kommun
United Kingdom
Norfolk County Council
Improvement and Development Agency for local Government
Edinburgh City
Napier University
Background and Aim
Aim The general aim of the Smart Cities project is to create an innovation network between governments and academic partners leading to excellence in the domain of the development and take-up e-services.
At the European level, the project will support the creation and growth of communities of practice across the NSR building organisational commitment to and capacity for inter-regional government service sharing.
Background New innovation networks through collaboration: Smart Cities will build integrated academic/governmental people-based networks that enable effective information sharing and use into economically relevant knowledge and technologies. Regional authorities must reach beyond traditional co-operation and chart new territories of cross-sectoral networking to ensure their regions and NSR remain competitive.
Information exchange to planned co-designed public e-services & methodologies: Cities and public organisations around the North Sea are transforming their regions through e-Government strategies.
Smart Cities believes that public services need not just to be integrated but, crucially, co-designed using the triple helix; public data needs not just to be shared but to be constantly refined through re-use, feedback loops & network evaluation; new public sector methodologies tested for user channel suitability and promotion. There is no EU solution for implementing an efficient regional innovation policy. Today regions are tackling this challenge at different rates, using different methodologies, with limited success often ignoring existing methodologies, practices & support networks.
Co-design, integrated mainstreaming and academic involvement will lead to transnational transferable methodologies and e-services: Regional authorities already at the forefront of e-Government best practice in national arenas will work together in Smart Cities to carry out trans-national benchmarking, joint development and collaborative learning crosssectorally.
This will be supported by a transnational academic network which creates a shared and validated model for the successful co-design, piloting and communication of practices, methodologies and tools. Involving key policy makers through the full project life-cycle and co-designing with national authorities involved in the project ensures mainstreaming at a national and European level. The practical outcome of this cross-sectoral and transnational collaboration will be a new baseline for e-services in the NSR, with a strong potential for mainstreaming.
Where dissemination means “everybody knows”, mainstreaming means “everybody accepts solutions to be the best and plans to roll it out”.
Expected Outcomes
Build e-service platform with the potential to be shared across the NSR in the domain of service-delivery, wireless service and take-up services,
Innovative e-public services, such as jointly pilot new services channels, blue-tooth services for public transport, online forms in mobile phones and wireless city services,
Developing common interface standards and practical indicators and management instruments to survey and guarantee e-service delivery,
Co-design public mobile services aimed at efficiency, cost-saving and participation with attention for e-inclusion,
A Network of North Sea e-Government leaders and an academic and research network.
October 2010 - March 2011
Six months before the end of the project, the Smart Cities project is finalizing the remaining project's deliverables while disseminating project results. The international mainstreaming event in December 2010 attracted interest from all over Europe in the Smart Cities project's activities as well as from national governments and the European Commission. The Citadel Statement (a European eGovernment Statement) shows what European and central government should do to stimulate local e-government. DG Info invited the Flemish Government and Smart Cities to further the Statement and to relaunch it as part of the Polish Presidency.
Numerous academic and project publications were published, some of which in Europe wide journals. Wide exposure of the project at national and European conferences and events supports the mainstreaming of results. For example, the MyPage project was demonstrated to the Flemish parliament during the technology festival E-Dinges: Leiedal is developing a website MyMunicipality that shows how personalized and geobased information and services could be delivered in real time. In addition, Smart Cities presented its service development methodology at the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), which showed interest in the Smart Cities experiences and cases of service development.
April - September 2010
During the past reporting period, the project has delivered a number of transnational outcomes. The Customer Insight methodology for customer and community profiling has been tested by local partners and a publication is being produced and released in October 2010 at the Smart Cities Customer Insight Conference in Cambridge. The wide range of work on Customer Contact Centres in the project is being brought together in a guide to developing and managing customer contact centres that will be useful for local authorities across the EU.
The first draft of a transnational EU service list has been prepared and tested. The Smart Cities academic network has described the knowledge gathered over the past two years in a continuous flow of research briefs and conference presentations.
The project results were presented at several international conferences and communicated to target groups. Smart Cities has been invited by the Flemish government in participating in the organisation and planning of the pre-conference event that launches the conference 'Lift off to Open Government' organised by the Belgian government as part of their EU presidency. Smart Cities is involved in the production and presentation of a policy statement on e-government for national and EU government, the Citadel statement.
October 2009 - March 2010
Midway through the Smart Cities project, the first transnational outputs have been delivered: A customer profiling guide has been published that is based on transnational cooperation between academics and governments, and is built upon the experience of delivering local projects. The production of a draft EU service list is almost complete, which has the potential to set a new standard in service delivery of local authorities in Europe. In addition, the organisation of the production of a contact centre publication is complete and relevant material is being developed. The academic network has continued its evaluation work, developed monitoring and evaluation tools, and published a project guide and a number of academic publications.
The Smart Cities project contributed to the ePractice workshop on "Efficient and Effective eGovernment" in Brussels on March 2010. This workshop was an initiative of DG INFSO, European Commission. In addition, Smart Cities has recently been invited by the Flemish government to start preparations for a high-level international mainstreaming event on e-Government, which will be held during the Belgian EU presidency.
The local projects are progressing and are tied in closely with transnational outputs. The project has introduced mechanisms to further stimulate joint working, such as regular internal reporting, bilateral work between partners, the integration of academic with municipal work, the continuous development of the project wiki and the introduction of Project Initiation Documents that provide an explicit mechanism to link local work with planned transnational outputs.
The project is continuing to work to spread its message to other academic and governmental organisations, both in the national states and at the EU level. By using a mix of online tools, specific messages can be send to a wide range of target groups who are interested in the Smart Cities work.
April - September 2009
The Smart Cities project continues to gain momentum in the project's second semester. In the last half year, the project's partners have turned their efforts towards the development of local and transnational pilots.
At the end of the project's first year, two transnational pilots are under development. The first focuses on contact centres where Dutch and UK methodology is studied and transferred to all other partner regions. The second pilot concerns the development of a European Service List where a shared service list is being prepared using a UK approach. Apart from these transnational pilots several clearly defined local pilots are under construction ranging from methodologies for customer profiling, personalised and geo-located services, and pilots for wireless services. The Smart Cities academic network makes sure that methodologies are comparable and transferable. Using the methodology of e-government academies and meetings, the project's partners have a clear understanding of the skills and strengths of the partnership, and are able to lever these resources to help their local work.
The project continues to work on methods of co-designing services, on involving mainstreaming partners, and on bringing academic institutions and governments together. Improvements in communication methods and approaches have meant that the project is starting to be recognised by national and international partners. Click here for the Smart Cities presentation on Project Implementation given during the Lead Beneficiary Seminar #3 in Antwerp 2009.
Until March 2009
In the first 6 months after approval, Smart Cities has created a sustainable network of government and academic partners who are working together and exchanging knowledge and ideas. Communication tools, project management structures and a strong academic network that supports government partners have all been established. In the initial period, the focus of horizontal integration has been assured by the holding of meetings, the building of the academic network, and the development of local networks between governments and academic institutions.
The project has developed the basis for solutions which are sustainable, transferable and which will be used by citizens. Three main methods were used in this context: designing and building solutions which are supported by adequate preparatory research, which are designed with consumers through a process of 'co-design' and through working with national main-streamers.
This led to a programme of e-Government Academies where the academic and government partners worked together to present the ‘state of the art' knowledge and best practices in the different Smart Cities themes: customer services, wireless services and customer profiling and take-up. At the same time partners are linking their local networks with national bodies and academic partners, and they are defining their pilots. This combination of top-down and bottom-up strategies should lead to the first tangible pilot definitions by the end of 2009.
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