Digitally driven smart cities : moving forward to smarter communities

The remit of the 2011 Advisory Group meeting has been to provide advice on strategic objectives and priorities for smart cities initiatives in the next Framework Programme (Horizon 2020), to identify the key issues to be dealt with and anticipate the relevant areas for research and technological development. At the European level, progress manifests itself in the Smart Cities and Communities topic within the current Energy Work Programme call for proposals, the plans for an ICT joint call in 2012 and the expectation of a large scale initiative in 2014 as part of Horizon 2020. It is clear that ICT should be the connection to enable exploitation of potential synergies among the various "smart" realms of activity that will all contribute to achieving carbon-neutrality in cities. These realms include energy in buildings, electric mobility, eHealth, eCare, and eGovernance. European added value will come from achieving open standards and EU wide compatibility of systems enabling cross-border competitiveness, rapid progress and thus a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. In the short term, the Advisory Group recommended that Smart Cities initiatives focus on each realm of activity (suggested as energy, eServices and ICT) whilst promoting interoperability and compatibility of communications between them and aiming for progressive integration. The meeting concluded that: Smart Cities and Communities initiatives (hereafter abbreviated to "Smart Cities") should focus on implementation of existing, advanced state of the art products and services, research is needed on communications related aspects to facilitate integration and interoperability issues, on utility networks and cyber security issues, on overcoming financial barriers, on developing suitable frameworks for public-private risk sharing enterprises and on societal aspects regarding behavioural change, flexibility is required in terms of definition of city and community, public private partnerships are a vital success factor in "smart" initiatives, existing technology platforms, trade organisations and networks of towns and cities should be involved in the programme and in projects.