The report.-

The R4E project is making good progress, and now we can proudly announce the publication of our “Ambition setting” report. Certainly, this report is the proof of the effort and the work done during the first 9 months of the project. This work has been materialized in a detailed and valuable document for the R4E project partners about the ambitions established for their cities in the following focus areas: “Smart buildings”, “Smart mobility” and “Smart urban spaces”. The “Ambition setting” report can be downloaded from this link.

This report synthesizes the work done during that first stage of the project and it has been set up thanks to the contribution and findings of the 8 “Ambition workshops” held in the partners’ cities, Eindhoven, Tallinn, Murcia, Istanbul, Sant Cugat del Valles, Newcastle, Forli y Palermo. Specific “Ambition setting” annexes have been released for each project partner where extended and more technical information is provided, please use this link to download the full document.

The “Ambition workshops”.-

During these “Ambition workshops”, all partners’ cities have involved their policy makers, municipal experts, local companies and related “focus areas” entities in order to enrich as much as possible the outcomes of these working meetings. The goal was to define all together how each city should be and what services must provide their citizens in 2050.Some pictures from the “Ambition workshop” in Eindhoven (first row) and Istambul (second row).

These workshops have taken advantage of assistants’ experience and willingness with the aim of fostering the exchange of ideas and build long-term relationships. Different inputs from different actors have contributed to develop a coherent and solid range of ambitions for the future about smart buildings, smart mobility and smart urban spaces in every partner city.

Some pictures from the “Ambition workshop” in Sant Cugat del Vallès (first row) and Tallinn (second row).

These innovative workshops have been the core of the work methodology planned for the R4E project. As mentioned before, they have triggered the cooperation between participants from different backgrounds and expertise, and have been surprisingly useful to create debate, contrast different points of view and to pool knowledge. As a result, we have been able to define the ambitions of each city regarding the mentioned focus areas in an integrating and fruitful way.

Some pictures from the “Ambition workshop” in Forli (first row) and Murcia (second row).

Finally, here we have some pictures from the ambition workshops in the cities of Newcastle and Palermo.

Some pictures from the “Ambition workshop” in Newcastle (first row) and Palermo (second row).

Below is shown the ambition setting for the city of Newcastle in the focus area of “Smart buildings”.

Next Steps

The time frame chosen for the “Ambition setting” in the R4E Project is 2050, that period of time is large enough to set the objectives (ambitions) of each city with plenty of freedom without being constrained by technological solutions, and at the same time, that time frame allows cities to plan the actions far ahead to get deep transformations in the focus areas selected.

In this recently completed phase, which is the first of the four phases or stages in which the R4E project is planned, the needs, ambitions and priorities have been established, and now we have to define and start developing those future desirable scenarios from the point of view of each of the three focus areas. The summary of the four steps process in which the project is planned is shown in the following figure:

Therefore, the second stage of the project is the “Vision development” and another 8 specific workshops will be held to defined all the generic elements for the future scenarios in the partners’ cities.