IRIS is a HORIZON 2020 EU funded project beginning October 2017 for a duration of five years.
The project has been developed around three lighthouse cities - Utrecht (The Netherlands, coordinator), Nice (France), and Gothenburg (Sweden) - who will work as collaborators and test-beds for follower cities Vaasa (Finland), Alexandroupolis (Greece), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain) and Focsani (Romania).
Each city will draw upon a mix of universities and research organisations, local authorities, innovation agencies and private expertise to accelerate entire communities to adopt ambitious energy, mobility and ICT initiatives.
We are currently facing many societal challenges, being energy transition a pressing one. We are part of a large H2020 EU project called a Lighthouse project, in which cities in seven countries in Europe bite the bullet to effectuate innovative solutions for energy transition in demo areas in each city. A prime focus in projects like these is solving problems in implementing emerging technologies.
During a 16-day Hackathon, sixty-five students of Utrecht University came up with innovative and sustainable solutions to improve living in the Utrecht neighborhood of Kanaleneiland.
Q&A with study author and project lead Kateřina Válková