Data Spaces for Smart Cities: AI-Ready Trusted Platforms to Scale Urban Innovation

Data Spaces will empower cities with AI-ready platforms to scale innovation in a responsible and sovereign manner. There is an urgent need for increasing the access to data and capacity to leverage new technologies to improve the resilience of cities, in tackling todays challenges. While a lot is available today, fragmentation of initiatives prevail. The session will explore the synergies between current EU initiatives focusing on smart communities (and beyond), and emphasize collaboration and co-creation for impact.

This workshop aims to share the relevant developments in urban contexts, understanding what is available, lessons learned so far, and influence upcoming policies and investments.

The session will have two parts: a more informative part with short presentations/pitches, and a second part driven by participation, following the World Cafe method, allowing the audience to engage in a variety of topics, such as 1) Leveraging legal enablers, 2) Fostering technical convergence, 3) Crystallising Public & Business incentives, or 4) Capacity-building & adoption.

Specific objectives are:

● Create a shared understanding of the current European landscape: Map and align the roles, mandates and complementarities of existing data spaces, AI initiatives and digital infrastructures relevant to smart cities and communities.

● Create a coordination backbone and explore how DS4SSCC can act as a federating layer connecting sectoral data spaces, city platforms, AI ecosystems and European sovereign infrastructures.

● Identify concrete cooperation mechanisms between initiatives: move beyond parallel efforts by defining practical collaboration models (technical, organisational and governance-related) among EU-funded initiatives.

● Feed back results into the Strategic Research Agenda and relevant Task Forces of BDVA.

Expected Outcomes:

● A clear picture of overlaps, gaps and synergies across initiatives

● A common narrative linking data spaces, AI and regulation in smart cities

● A set of actionable recommendations for policy, infrastructure design and future funding

Agenda 

Part I: Setting the scene and showcasing results (15’)

Intro by session host/moderator (Nuria de Lama, IDC)

Short presentations to set the scene

• DS4SSCC-DEP with a view on position in relation to other initiatives (Nuria de Lama, IDC) (5’)
• Case study and the need of a community: Geo4Water pilot (Arne J. Berre, SINTEF) (5′)
• Opportunities for Contributions (Savvas Rogotis, BDVA) (5’)

Part II. World-café style Workshop (45′):

–          Introductions (Sille Sepp, TalTech) (5′)

–          Discussions (30′)

Topics:
1) Fostering technical convergence,
2) Crystallising Public & Business incentives, and
3) Capacity-building & adoption.

In each of the themed “World Cafe station”, the facilitator engages the group to explore two central questions:

1. “What are the most critical steps related to <the theme of the station> to take, to maximise benefits for smart communities?” and
2. “What insights and assets can be drawn from the participating initiatives and organisations?”
   1. DS4SSCC-DEP (Nuria de Lama, IDC)
   2. LDT4SSC (Sille/Anniki, TalTech)
   3. CitCom.ai (Alessio, LIST)
   4. DeployTour (Dolores Ordóñez, AnySolution)
   5. deployEMDS (Jim Ahtes, i2CAT)
   6. AI Factory/anntena, also representing TEF Citcom.ai  and LDT Toolbox (Claus Popp Larsen, RISE)

Concluding part: Wrap-up by panelists and session moderator (10′)

After 30min of discussion in themed groups, the facilitators are invited to summarise key takeaways from the discussion and inform others about potential synergies among different initiatives.

 Slides

Data Spaces for Smart Cities