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.
Cutting-edge technologies can power the transition towards cities that deliver energy, mobility and ICT services in cleaner, more efficient ways. But turning ideas into practical solutions requires the capacity to handle innovation, both to deploy new solutions at scale and to replicate what is working in other urban centers.
A report launched by the IRIS Smart Cities initiative outlines key EU financing mechanisms and provides guidance on how to identify suitable opportunities, approach funders and access resources. The objective is to build the capacity of local governments and service providers who intend to deploy innovations –from better heating systems to car-sharing platforms.
In order to nudge the residents of its new apartment building towards a more sustainable lifestyle, Swedish housing company Riksbyggen made the bold choice to not offer them any private parking spaces. Instead, they were offered a comfortable alternative through a new mobility concept, developed within the IRIS Smart Cities project.