Cork: the Intelligent City

30th September 2020 

Cork City Council with support from the Nimbus Research Centre at Cork Institute of Technology, has successfully secured a place in the European Commission’s new Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) programme. The ICC initiative brings together 126 cities to achieve intelligent, socially responsible and sustainable growth through advanced technologies.

The 2-year programme of tailored and high-quality guidance will commence this week and Cork City will focus on 4 broad areas of interest:

• enhancing citizen participation, connectivity and community;
• eGovernment and digitising public services;
• scaling up renewable energy solutions and energy-efficiency; and
• innovative education and training for up- and re-skilling.

It is hoped to use this opportunity to address a selection of additional goals such as digital inclusion; connected services; open data; supporting SMEs, resilience and recovery post Covid-19.

The ICC will build directly on involvement in the Digital Cities Challenge (2018-2019). The Digital Cities Challenge programme explored how cities could realise their  potential to compete in the digital age in terms of efficiently using technologies and instigating transformative policies that can address related challenges. This learning has contributed to shaping a shared vision, objectives and roadmap of activities towards the drafting of a city-wide Digital Strategy for the coming years, which will ultimately enable a more digitally mature, resilient and competitive city with an enhanced quality of life and a supportive business ecosystem.

The commencement of the ICC programme takes place from the 28th September to the 2nd October with the first ICC City Lab. This City Lab will comprises a series of online events, which will offer participating cities the chance to network and further explore the themes of the challenge. 

ICC is supported by the EU COSME programme.

www.intelligentcitieschallenge.eu/

Contact: claire_davis@corkcity.ie