These materials are meant to support SPARCS communication and dissemination activities and to help stakeholders to promote its solutions for urban energy transformation towards citizen-inclusive Sustainable Energy Positive & zero carbon Communities.

 

 

 

 

 

SPARCS EU

 

SPARCS and POCITYF had a joint event as part of the Green Week 2022 to present the importance of smart cities to the green transition.

The online webinar Digital solutions in supporting cities’ energy transition to climate neutrality presents the solutions implemented across various cities, part of the two H2020 projects. SPARCs and POCITYF focus on the importance of digital solutions in achieving climate neutrality in urban areas by sharing examples of different solutions implemented across Lighthouse and Fellow cities.

We dive into: the SPARCS start-up smart city competition initiatives by exploring the best practices,
KONE and the City of Leipzig on the importance of co-innovation challenges and what are the key ingredient to their success based on their experiences within SPARCS.

The webinar also continued with the replication leaders Fraunhofer IAO explaining how smart city competition could be replicated across other cities.

The SPARCS webinar under the title “Evaluation Framework and Replication Considerations “ consisted of two parts.

The first part was dedicated to the Impact Assessment Framework developed for the needs of the SPARCS project.
In order to give a clear picture of the distinct steps followed by the SPARCS technical partners, information was provided on the methodology followed to define the holistic evaluation framework. The literature review of the relevant frameworks, the analysis of the various approaches to defining a comprehensive list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as well as the data collection and normalization procedures were briefly presented. In addition, the evaluation process and thoughts on the next steps were mentioned so that the understanding of the SPARCS philosophy on the Impact Assessment Framework to be broad.

In the second part of the webinar, replication indicators, that contribute towards building a holistic Impact assessment framework, were in focus.
With the target to enable a projection of impact indicators when solutions are considered and deployed at Lighthouse, Fellow or other cities, available replication indicators were presented followed by the SPARCS approach, which offers a practical alternative to “screen” both city/district characteristics, as well as the requirements of the solutions. Examples and a pool of indicative indicators, combined with considerations of how this approach will support the overall SPARCS replication strategy, in addition to serving as a basis for an enhanced knowledge pool, concluded this part.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic), and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic), and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic), and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

SPARCS is a Horizon 2020 project with a Lighthouse & Fellow City structure and therefore replication is a very important aspect within the project. In the webinar, the replication leaders Fraunhofer IAO & Bable explain how Fellow Cities Reykjavik, Kladno, Kifissia, Maia, and Lviv are taken through the City Lab & Project Development process to co-create smart city solutions, how the smart city training gives the opportunity to city representatives to gain further knowledge on transformation towards a smart city and how Lighthouse & Fellow Cities exchange knowledge through workshops & webinars. Apart from the task leaders, city representatives from Maia and Reykjavik share their experiences and lessons learned for smart city transformation.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic) and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic) and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic) and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

SPARCS objective is to tackle the challenges that cities are called to solve, by creating the necessary ecosystems for the urban energy transformation. The project’s goal is to achieve citizen-led inclusive free carbon urban community by integrating: ✔️ technologies for energy positivity in buildings and districts citizen engagement; ✔️ city planning and governance; ✔️ flexible grid management and energy storage and e-mobility as an energy system element.

The SPARCS project is a smart city initiative that brings together 31 partners with the common goal of creating a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS. The project will provide systematic support for urban transformation and community engagement in two Lighthouse Cities – Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany). The solutions developed in the Lighthouse Cities will be closely followed in five Fellow Cities: Maia (Portugal), Kifissia (Greece), Reykjavik (Iceland), Kladno (Czech Republic) and Lviv (Ukraine) with the aim of further replication.

On 24 March 2020, SPARCS together with its partners Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and RIL organised a Mission Board Seminar on Citizen Engagement. The online event presented the lessons learned form, and the challenges regarding the effort to achieve climate neutrality in cities around the world, focusing on the citizen-centric approach.