Lighthouse - Cities as beacons of progress

Cities as beacons of progress. The coordinators of the Smart City Lighthouse projects will meet in Brno.

This year's URBIS SMART CITY FAIR conference at the Brno Exhibition Center will host an important meeting of Smart City Lighthouse projects. The program, which points to those cities that are leaders in smart innovation, has been in operation for six years. During that time, over 110 European cities participated in seventeen large projects, including Prague, Brno, Písek, Litoměřice and Kladno. The coordinators of all these projects will meet in Brno this autumn. An integral part of the Urbis program will also be a discussion on the follow-up Horizon Europe program, which will allocate the budget for research and innovation in the period 2021-2027.

Since 2014, the Smart Cities and Communities initiative has been announcing the Smart Cities Lighthouse project for European cities every year. The call is funded by Horizon 2020 , which supports innovation.

Two types of cities are involved in Lighthouse projects: lighthouse cities and cities — followers who follow them. Lighthouse Cities develops and tests integrated innovative solutions on a local scale. This primarily serves as an example for the surrounding region. But they also work with city-followers, help spread innovative solutions and show how to adapt these solutions to different local conditions.

An important feature of smart city projects is the ability to replicate. City-followers, who are not yet so advanced in innovation themselves, are therefore learning and preparing for the project when they will be able to take on the role of leaders or lighthouses themselves. So far, this has been the role of Czech cities involved in this project: Prague, Brno, Písek, Litoměřice and Kladno.

Innovation is at the heart of Horizon 2020 , which funds, among other things, Lighthouse projects. It is Europe's competitiveness that depends on Europe's ability to innovate in production and services. Innovation is also the best way to a successful solution

major societal challenges of modern times - climate change and energy efficiency. The aim of the whole project is to bring together cities, industry and citizens to develop innovative solutions to ensure safe, affordable and clean energy, intelligent electromobility and intelligent tools and services. Horizon 2020 also funds the European project RUGGEDISED,
which covers the lighthouse challenge of the city of Brno.

Thanks to the program, a modern, smart, low-energy district will be created in Brno. The main motives for building a pilot district, which has the task of verifying the set goals not only of modern technologies, trends and smart city principles, are also the verification of new ways of sustainable cooperation between the public sector and the private sector.

And how should the "cleverness" of the new neighborhood manifest itself? It is primarily about creating a quality, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly environment for its future residents and users, which will also save them time and money.

In 2018 and 2019, an international urban design competition took place, in which 27 architects and architectural studios took part. This year, two important milestones were reached - the elaboration of the territorial study "Reconstruction Zone - Hospital and surroundings" and the presentation of the Master Plan.

In addition to Brno, Rotterdam, Glasgow, Umeå, Parma and Gdańsk are also involved in the project. Cities cooperate and share experience in implementing smart solutions not only in the areas of mobility, energy and information technology, but also in social, economic and environmental issues that will improve the quality of life of the population.

The development plan and the method of transforming the smart district will be presented on September 2 and 3 at the Brno Exhibition Center as part of the URBIS SMART CITY FAIR!