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/).

First Open Call Piloting Teams Announced

13 pilots running in three European cities to improve quality of life of marginalized communities

CommuniCity project has awarded the first 13 piloting teams. In total, 42 applications have been received for the first round of Open Calls. As a result of the evaluation phase, 13 pilots are being executed by the winning teams with the support of the CommuniCity partners and cities. Five pilots are running in Amsterdam, four in Helsinki, and four in Porto during the summer and autumn of 2023.

CommuniCity is a 3-year Support Coordination Action funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The project, through a calendar of three Open Calls, addresses the needs of European cities and communities and finds innovative, digitally inclusive, and sustainable AI and XR solutions. 

For the first CommuniCity Open Call round, 42 applications were received. All eligible applications were evaluated by expert jury members nominated by each piloting city: Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Porto. Each winning team was awarded a grant of 12.500 euros. In addition to this grant, other resources, such as in-kind contributions, can be allocated to the piloting teams.

13 pilots running in the three main pilot cities of  Helsinki, Amsterdam and Porto

During the first round of open calls, each of the partnering cities have identified city-specific challenges that the awarded teams are addressing with their technological solutions.

The City of Amsterdam awarded five applications. Pilots are run by Tolkie, WeSolve ApS, Garage2020, Switch AI, and XS2Content. They focus on the challenges of offering opportunities for youngsters with criminal records; enabling non-Dutch speakers to communicate in their own language in local authorities; accessibility of healthcare information through AI; and two “Wildcard” applications concentrated on empowering low-literate citizens with the help of AI and on piloting assistive robots for parents with disabilities.

Four pilots have been selected by the City of Helsinki. The solutions come from the companies CTRL Reality, Palko Interactive Oy, Aiedus, and Stereoscape Oy and are related to the challenges of improving disabled citizens skills; homecare clients’ safety; the integration of long-term unemployed citizens into working life and the encouragement of non-Finnish speakers into integrating society and services.

The City of Porto named four pilots as winners, three related to the challenge of decreasing the loneliness of the elderly and one to increase the autonomy of the senior population. From the winning teams of Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, WeSolve ApS, and Hoivita.  

Co-creating solutions for the cities and communities

The pilot stage of the first CommuniCity Open Call round will last until September 2023. During this period, teams will work in close collaboration with city officials and citizens in order to validate their solutions, using the co-creation principles that are the basis of the CommuniCity project.

On the CommuniCity website, you will find information about the technical framework, a set of assets such as specifications, software, approaches, etc. that teams can follow in order to support the design and development of innovative solutions. The first version of the framework will be publicly available in July.

The next round of the Open Call will be published on September 12, 2023. In this second round, more cities will join, presenting more challenges and leading to more pilots.

Please check further information about the winning teams at the Pilots section of the CommuniCity website, and follow up on all the piloting stage news on our social media channels:

Instagram @communi_city

Twitter @communi_city

LinkedIn CommuniCity

For further information, please contact:

City of Porto / Porto Digital
Adeeb Sidani
CommuniCity City Admin
adeeb.sidani@portodigital.pt

City of Amsterdam
Neeltje Pavicic
CommuniCity City Admin
n.pavicic@amsterdam.nl

City of Helsinki / Forum Virium Helsinki
Silja Peltonen
CommuniCity City Admin
silja.peltonen@forumvirium.fi

CommuniCity Project Coordinator
Josephine Di Pino
OASC
Josephine@oascities.org

CommuniCity in the News – Amsterdam Challenges at ZuidOost TV

Last week, CommuniCity was featured at the local broadcaster from Amsterdam Southeast, ZuidOost Tv, showcasing two challenges from the First Round of the Open Calls.

Soraya Semmoh, from the City of Amsterdam, talks on the importance of challenges 3 and 4 for the Southeast community. To help young citizens with legal problems and to insert them into new work opportunities, and the wildcard opportunity to create a solution with a technical component.

The applications are now closed, and the results of the selected pilots will be revealed at the end of April 2023.

Watch now the interview and promo video about the Amsterdam challenges of the First Open Call:

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 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.