The largest EU funding program so far, Horizon 2020, is investing 80 billion euros overall in innovations between 2014 and 2020. One focus topic is Smart City, with lighthouse projects being funded on a yearly basis in the areas of:
- mobility
- energy-neutral housing
- information and communication technology (ICT)
These topics shall be implemented in the context of participatory and sustainable city development. It is essential to reduce CO2 production, direct the control of decentralized renewable energies and establish multimodal (e-) mobility solutions to enhance quality of life and create new jobs.
ReThink cooperates with the three German Lighthouse Smart Cities and jointly exhibits its results at a common booth at CeBIT 2017, organised by our partner Telekom Innovation Laboratories.
The three current lighthouse projects with German lighthouse cities: Grow Smarter (Cologne, Barcelona, Stockholm, launch 2014), Smarter Together (Munich, Lyon, Wien, launch 2015) mySMARTLife (Hamburg, Helsinki, Nantes, launch 2016) are showing for the first time at a single booth their results and a planned cooperation as a network.
reTHINK
Since 2015, the EU H2020 project reTHINK has been developing a new disruptive ICT infrastructure approach using a new ad-hoc signalling mechanism and modular software concept “Hyperties” including a run-time environment. The project focus lies on decentralized context-based communication methodologies to avoid the “naked user” à la Facebook.
Cooperation of the three German lighthouse cities
To address the challenges of climate change on a common basis and to share national and international knowledge, the three German lighthouse cities will cooperate in future on a stronger basis. The aim is the direct exchange of knowledge between the different projects, joint excursions and workshops, the exchange of scientific results as well as the rapid dissemination of the knowledge gained inside the German city network to support future “SmartCity” projects and cooperation.
Grow Smarter
The project is especially focused on enhancing air quality, reducing particulate matter pollution, reducing energy consumption as well as making a contribution towards sustainably mobility in the urban space. Hence, the project shall actively support the EU climate goals. Besides the development of a more sustainable and ecological Europe, the point is also to create up to 1,500 new jobs.
Smarter Together
The project area in Munich is Neuaubing-Westkreuz/Freiham and currently covers around 30,000 inhabitants. Local residents have the opportunity to contribute their ideas to help shape the measures taken. The aim is to give local residents a better quality of life, improve energy efficiency in residential spaces and create connected mobility offerings – all with the aid of the intelligent use of data and new technologies such as smart lamp posts, battery storage and a smart neighbourhood app.
mySMARTLife
In Hamburg, the project will be implemented in the Borough of Hamburg- Bergedorf. Core project targets amongst others are the development of new intermodal mobility services coupled with e-vehicles, the development of an e-bus line, the creation of a decentralised energy and heating network including a new ice-based storage concept as well as the integration of data and services on an EU- conformed urban platform.
A Smart City neighbourhood application is a core usage scenario and will be demonstrated together with “Smarter Together”, addressing context-based topics such as participation, information or a local market place. Since 2013, T-Labs, the research and development department of Deutsche Telekom, has been a pioneer in investigating Smart City and is a project partner in reTHINK & mySMARTLife. All projects receive funding from the European Horizon 2020 program for research, technological development and demonstration. reTHINK: under grant agreement n° 645342 Grow Smarter: under grant agreement n° 646456. Smarter Together: under grant agreement n° 691876 mySMARTLife: under grant agreement n° 731297.
