Smartpolis – Smart city center of excellence

Budapest Competence Center for Smart Cities 

Eastern European cities need to develop special skills, financial strength and business models to become smart cities. This is the basis for the development of a center of excellence for Smart Cities in Budapest. The Center will help cities in eastern central Europe to meet the European Union's climate objective, and to facilitate the transition to smarter and more sustainable urban infrastructure.

What is it about?

In 2011, the European Union launched a strategic initiative for smart cities and communities called the European Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities (EIP SCC). While Western European member states have already begun to introduce complex information and communication technology systems for smart cities, this development has been much less advanced in Eastern Europe. The aim of the project is to establish a corresponding center of competence at the University of Technology and Economics in Budapest. The competence center will be closely linked to EIP SCC, its implementation strategy and the smart city stakeholder platform.

Impact:

The Budapest Competence Center for Smart Cities will facilitate capacity building in the region. Cooperation with leading partners and solution providers is of crucial importance for the overall success. The Center will implement the strategic implementation plan and the following operational implementation plan of the EIP SCC into concrete local applications in eastern central Europe.

Consortium:

The Hungarian Office of Intellectual Property (SzTNH) is the coordinator of the project, supported by the Budapest University of Technology (BME). The Fraunhofer FOKUS will provide scientific support to the structure and activities of the Competence Center. The Institute for Urban Software is already supporting European innovation partnerships in German and other European cities as well as in Australia in its efforts to use innovative concepts and solutions to meet ambitious climate protection targets.

The project is supported by funding from the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union.