The CommuniCity Consortium is pleased to announce that 60 pilots have been selected following
the conclusion of its third open call. These winning teams collaborate closely with marginalised
communities across 16 European cities to co-create solutions that address local needs with
activities running until May 2025.

Following the closure of its third Open Call on October 31, 2024, the CommuniCity project has
awarded 60 pilot teams. These teams are co-developing innovative solutions for 48 out of 54
city-specific challenges, tackling pressing social, economic, and urban issues in the partnering
cities—Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Porto—as well as in the replicator cities. These are Bruges,
Cuneo, London, Manchester, Matosinhos, Milazzo, Plock, Prague, Sant Boi de Llobregat,
Sarajevo, The Hague, and Utrecht. All pilots are expected to finish by the end of May 2025.

CommuniCity is a three-year initiative funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe
Framework Programme (2023-2025). Its primary objective is to empower marginalised
communities in European cities by co-creating innovative, digitally inclusive, and sustainable
solutions across various technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Extended Reality (XR),
and others. Throughout the three rounds of CommuniCity open calls, 100 technology pilots are
being run to tackle various urban challenges and drive meaningful impact in local communities.

Transformative solutions across Europe
During the third round of CommuniCity Open Calls, 204 applications were submitted to tackle
54 city-specific challenges. Expert juries from partner and replicator cities carefully selected 60
piloting teams, awarding each €12,500 to develop innovative solutions for the pressing social
and urban challenges identified by the cities and their communities. The winning teams build on
insights from the first and second CommuniCity Open Calls, conducted in cities Amsterdam,
Helsinki, Porto, Aarhus, Breda, Prague, and Tallinn. These earlier rounds successfully
implemented 38 pilots from February 2023 until June 2024, shaping the foundation for the latest
phase.

Designing inclusive innovations
CommuniCity’s core principle is co-creation, actively engaging marginalised communities
alongside city officials, professionals, and tech providers. In 16 participating cities, collaborative
pilots spanning three to six months ensure that innovative solutions directly address the
authentic needs of the communities they aim to empower. Additionally, the project developed
a toolbox as a practical resource to facilitate co-creation with marginalised groups, which is
available on Communilab, CommuniCity’s Virtual Learning Lab.

Fostering collaboration
The 60 pilots represent a robust collaboration between cities, residents, and technology
innovators, fostering a sustainable model for inclusive urban innovation. Kicking off in December
2024, these initiatives will run until the end of May 2025, generating valuable insights and lasting
impacts across Europe.

Visit the Pilots section of our website and follow our social media channels to stay updated on
CommuniCity’s progress. Discover how technology can transform communities and create a
more inclusive future for European cities.

The Third-Round Winners, Challenges & Pilots

CommuniCity Tech Pilots Transforming European Cities

The CommuniCity Project awarded 18 teams after the closing of its second Open Call on the
31st of October 2023. These teams are currently implementing their solutions, aiming for up
to 25 pilots in the partnering cities of Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Porto, as well as in the
replicator cities of Aarhus, Breda, Prague and Tallinn. The pilots are expected to be concluded
by May 2024

CommuniCity is a three-year project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme launching three rounds of Open Calls for Applications during the years 2023–2025. The main goal is to empower marginalised communities in European cities with innovative, digitally inclusive, and sustainable Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) solutions.

During this second round of the CommuniCity Open Calls, all 48 submitted applications were carefully assessed by expert jury members selected by the partnering cities and replicator cities. The winning teams were granted 12,500 Euros each. Cross-border piloting teams could apply for additional funding of 5,000 or 10,000 Euros.

Throughout the Open Call process, all seven cities have identified several social challenges that will be analysed and hopefully solved by the technological solutions developed by the winning teams. These pilots will take advantage of the lessons learnt during the first round of CommuniCity Open Calls run in Amsterdam, Helsinki and Porto. In this first round, 13 pilots were conducted from May 2023 until January 2024.

The City of Amsterdam awarded five pilots to CoTownBV, T-APPS BV, One2One.run and Highberg. One2One.run seeks to increase girls’ participation in sports and exercise in Amsterdam Zuidoost. CoTownBV will run a pilot to facilitate the creation of a community savings and credit cooperative to fund social initiatives. Highberg will develop a tech solution to transform broadcast information in public transport to text messages on phones in order to include the hearing impaired. T-APPS BV will add a chatbot to their existing ‘AI document assistant’ app in co-creation with immigrants in both Amsterdam and Prague. Additionally, Amsterdam will run a pilot with the winning applicant of Prague’s cross-border challenge on participatory planning.

The City of Helsinki awarded six applications. The winners include Ai2Ai Oy, Superflash Technology Oy, Riesa Consultative Oy, Suomen Digitaalinen Tehdas Oy, Stereoscape Oy, and Kwizie. The pilots intend to tackle Helsinki’s challenges of how to enhance the quality of life for citizens with disabilities through digital innovation. They also focus on adressing pedestrian route information with participative data collection. Another challenge is to reliably measure the digital skills of long-term unemployed citizens, and a separate one is to prevent pressure ulcers in wheelchair patients. Riesa Consultative Oy is running a cross-border pilot with Tallinn on generating pedestrian route information with participative data collection. Kwizie is also implementing a cross-border pilot with the city of Tallinn to support the recognition of competences with the help of a digital tool. Stereoscape Oy is also expected to run a cross-border pilot along with Tallin and Porto on assessing the digital skills of long-term unemployed citizens.

Four pilots were selected in the City of Porto. Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research, GTC (Gymuri Technology Center), KU Leuven, and Stereoscape Oy. These solutions intend to address challenges such as improving thermal comfort and overall health in residential buildings and reducing school absenteeism through an innovative and inclusive educational solution. Two cross-border pilots are running in Porto, one along with Prague and Amsterdam (participatory planning) and another with Helsinki and Tallinn (measuring accurately the digital skills of long-term unemployed citizens).

The Replicator City of Aarhus awarded one pilot to Duckwise Aps which is using technology to ease the process of setting up a bank account for foreigners.

In the Replicator City of Breda, four pilots were awarded to Surplus, AR-GO-lab, XS2Content and Brainstorm en concept. All the pilots seek to address issues caused by intergenerational transmission, in other words, the way behaviours or problems are passed from one generation to the next in families. The pilots will deal with topics such as fostering healthy family relationships and enhancing youth health, making use of immersive Virtual Reality and a gamified metaverse.

Seeking to engage citizens from socially and economically disconnected places in participatory planning, the Replicator City of Prague awarded KU Leuven one pilot. This pilot will run along with Amsterdam and Porto.

The Replicator City of Tallinn shared challenges along with Helsinki and is running cross-border pilots with this city. One focuses on gathering pedestrian route information through participative data collection and another on facilitating competence recognition through the use of a digital tool. An additional cross-border pilot is expected to run along with Helsinki and Porto on evaluating the skills of long-term unemployed individuals.

The winning pilot teams of the second CommuniCity Open Calls represent a robust collaboration with city officials and residents. The core principle of CommuniCity revolves around co-creation – engaging citizens who belong to the targeted groups, alongside piloting teams, will certainly help to find the most suitable solutions to meet their needs.

The third and final CommuniCity Open Call will kick off in September 2024. Cities from all over Europe will be invited to join the project. Over 50 tech pilots are expected to be run in several European cities during the first half of 2025. For additional information please check the Pilots section of the CommuniCity website and follow our social media channels and stay updated on all the piloting news.

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:

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/

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For more information contact:

Anne-Mari Sandell

CommuniCity Open Call Lead

Forum Virium Helsinki

anne-mari.sandell@forumvirium.fi