What are MIMs?

As cities go through digital transformation there is a constant struggle for initiatives to offer successful innovative solutions to all. One of the main challenges to providing territorial cohesion is to unify the different sets of standards developed to address cities issues. The OASC and Living-in.eu support the interoperability of data among cities as a tool to foment integrated solutions worldwide. In this context, the Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms – MIM comes up to help cities and communities in this journey. MIMs are the minimal sufficient capabilities need to achieve interoperability of data, systems and services between buyers, suppliers and regulators across governance levels around the world.

This approach has in mind to establish a set of mechanisms across several domains and geographic areas, without having to specify everything in detail, and without requiring complete implementations or eventual compliances with other stakeholders. As a result, a minimal common ground is the work reference, which leads to reduced risk, increased investments, and innovation, among other benefits. With the European Commission support and OASC coordination, some MIMs are already in widespread use, setting the technical foundation for urban data platforms as well as solutions to cities and communities while pushing the space for Local Digital Twins and the CitiVerse to flourish.

To learn more about MIMs’ potential in scaling digital solutions and the MIMs that have been formally adopted check the OASC website: MIMs – Open & Agile Smart Cities (oascities.org/minimal-interoperability-mechanisms/).

CommuniCity present at the Living-in.EU Open Supporters Meeting

The Living-in.EU Open Supporters Meeting held online on June 6th aimed to provide stakeholders with an understanding of the needs and requirements of signatories and how they can contribute to the development of the CitiVerse – a collaborative platform for a city-simulated metaverse.

The meeting shared ongoing calls, news, and the significance of the standardisation (especially for MIMs and the CitiVerse development path), through different approaches, including perspectives from companies and exploring the roadmap to achieving digital solutions able to tackle a growing range of interconnected challenges.

The fruitful event presented cases that are already unfolding the foundations of a CitiVerse based on the Living-in.EU movement, supporting simultaneously the economic and social benefits of digital transformation in cities.

Text: Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação
Image: Living-in.EU

CommuniCity at the OASC Annual Summit General Assembly (June 2023)

On June 14th the OASC Annual Summit & General Assembly 2023 counted on the presence of partners of the CommuniCity project.

Josephine Di Pino, Project Manager of CommuniCity; Margarida Campolargo, Community and Project Coordinator at OASC; and Kristina Khutsishvili, Researcher at the University of Amsterdam and CommuniCity Work Package Leader, presented the project at the event, which focused on engaging panel discussions and workshops about the Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms (MIMs).

The session in which the representatives were present covered a wide range of interconnected subjects, providing takeaways on the intersection of AI and public administration, Local Digital Twins (LDTs) integration and the establishment of governance guidelines, the need for standards and interoperability to facilitate data sharing, the value of cooperation and learning through experimentation, as well as the importance of embracing the diversity of cities and communities in digital transformation to promote inclusive solutions.

During the session, Kristina Khutsishvili (University of Amsterdam) pointed out that projects on digital solutions need to get bottom-up input, share best and worst practices, and focus on co-creation – such as the CommuniCity project.

Text: Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação
Images: OASC

CommuniCity First Round of Open Calls has started, granting up to 18 Technical Solutions for Cities and Communities in Europe

CommuniCity is a 3-year project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme. It will launch 100 tech pilots through a calendar of three Open Calls to address the needs of European cities and communities through co-creation and co-learning processes.

During the first round of Open Calls for CommuniCity project, launched on February 28th, citizens, universities, organisations, companies, associations, and tech providers are welcome to participate co-creating and proposing innovative, digitally inclusive, and sustainable solutions for social, technological, economical, and urban challenges to meet the needs of marginalised communities in the cities of Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Porto.

This first Open Call will award up to 18 pilot projects, and each pilot will be granted 12.500 Euros. In the first round, each city chose specific topics: Porto will focus on Elderly loneliness and Decreased autonomy of the elderly; Amsterdam will be looking for Solutions for non-Dutch speakers, Accessible healthcare information, Opportunities for young citizens with criminal records, and Community solutions; Helsinki aims to find Solutions for adults and young adults with disabilities, Elderly citizens and homecare, Digital skills for Immigrants, and Rehabilitative work activities.

A Matchmaking Platform is also available to help find partners for pilots. The Open Call proposal, submission, evaluation, selection, and approval procedure ensures a simple, transparent, and competitive proposal evaluation and selection process. The process is open to all legal entities that can guarantee performance and fulfil the criteria stated in the Open Call Guidelines.

The submission of proposals is open from February 28th to March 31st through the CommuniCity website. The awarded teams will be announced in May and the pilots will start thereafter. All pilots must be finalised by the end of September and a new calendar for the second round of Open Calls will be available.

All information about the First Open Call Round: https://communicity-project.eu/first-open-call/

For more information contact:

Anne-Mari Sandell

CommuniCity Open Call Lead

Forum Virium Helsinki

anne-mari.sandell@forumvirium.fi

CommuniCity at the Connected Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities Conference 2023

Organized by Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC), the conference took place from 17 to 18th of January in Brussels, Belgium. The CSSCC Conference is a unique global opportunity for cities, regions, towns, as well as national and international policy makers and companies, to connect with the forefront of human-centered social development, shaped by real-time connected technologies, markets and policies in the 21st century.

The CommuniCity project was mentioned in three different panels and round tables of the event: “Digital transformation: what next?” “Living-in.EU– Involving 300 million citizens”, and “Measuring digital transformation in cities.”

CommuniCity Helsinki Workshop in November 2022

The Helsinki Workshop for #CommuniCity, organized by Forum Virium Helsinki and hosted by Demos Helsinki, was held between November 22 to 24, and it was an excellent opportunity for partners in the Cities clusters – Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Porto – to have productive discussions, share best practices for each city, and conduct presentations for CommuniCity’s pilots and Open Calls.

On the third day the partners from Porto Digital, Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC), Domus Social, and City of Amsterdam, visited the Helsinki Education Hub, an EdTech incubator for startups and testbed for educational solutions, where Ms. Anna Rantapero-Laine shared insights about the Education Hub and Helsinki EAC – Easy Access Co-Development -model. Next Ms. Marjo Kenttälä introduced Testbed Helsinki.

In the afternoon, the consortium participated in a field visit with Ms. Tuija Salovaara and Ms. Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé to the neighborhood of Malminkartano, a Living Lab area to learn more about the local social challenges.

CommuniCity present at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona

Last November, CommuniCity project was presented at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona through our partners European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) and Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC) at the European Smart Cities and Communities stand of the Smart Cities Marketplace.

Both partners participated in panels such as “Future City Planning Laboratories”, “The Role of Living Labs in Embracing Net Zero Pollution”,  “Are we Ready to Let AI Manage Cities?”, and “Governance and Digitalisation”.

CommuniCity was presented together with Living in EU, the movement in which our project is part of, in a digital transformation journey that started a few years ago.

CommuniCity Kick-off Meeting in September 2022

CommuniCity’s kick-off meeting happened on September 13 and 14, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. The two days were filled with productive conversations about the implementation of the project amongst the twelve partners present on-site and online.

The meeting was a chance for partners to meet and discuss aspects related to the beginning of the project, such as the value of the involvement of communities from the start and how to do this ethically and how co-creation and emerging technologies, such as AI, can help those communities through a calendar of open calls and selected pilots.

During the meeting, WP leaders shared their first presentations with descriptions of tasks, deliverables, and upcoming actions. It was a constructive assembly, leading to the raising of many important points that will remain relevant for the development of the project.