Pori was selected for The Intelligent Cities Challenge 2.0
The Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) – an initiative spearheaded by the European Commission (DG GROW and EISMEA) – announced that the City of Pori has been selected to join its esteemed support programme.
The city will now start its two-year journey (2023–2025) to create an impactful strategy and develop innovative solutions that will place the city at the forefront of the green and digital twin transition through Local Green Deals.
The ICC programme will help cities to harness the power of cutting-edge technologies, while improving their economic competitiveness, social resilience and the European citizens’ quality of life. They will receive high quality, tailored guidance, expert support, access to advisory and city peer networks, and capacity building tools, to drive their city closer towards the twin transition.
– Cities are the beating heart of Europe’s economy. The new phase of the Intelligent Cities Challenge offers cities with the prime opportunity to put themselves on the map as a European Intelligent City and to turn their sustainability and technological ambitions into action, especially by launching their own Local Green Deals across city departments and with the local businesses. These will put your cities firmly on the path towards making the European Green Deal and the Green Deal Industrial Plan a reality, while scaling-up Europe’s net-zero industry”, says Dana Eleftheriadou, Head Cities and Proximity Team, DG GROW at the European Commission.
The previous ICC edition (2020-2022), where the City of Pori was also involved, saw €1.9 billion earmarked for ICC cities’ actions and €247 million in public funding from EU, national and regional sources was leveraged which helped facilitate 336 actions planned by the 136 Core cities. This new edition will build on the success of the previous ICC programme (2020-22) and Digital Cities Challenge DCC (2018-20) and provide an extensive high-profile network, solid methodology framework and strong support mechanisms.
Pori’s successful participation in the DCC & ICC started a new practice of collaborative strategy processes within the Satakunta region by engaging both private and public stakeholders to the development of digitalisation and green economy. As a direct outcome of the ICC process, the Green Economy Objectives, with a concrete set of actions and deliverables, are now formally integrated in the City Strategy.
– ICC 2.0, in turn, is seen as an opportunity to continue the successful journey in the Industrial Circular Economy and for boosting Green investments. An important motivation for Pori to participate relates to networking, active knowledge sharing and benchmarking. Mutual learning would ensure high quality implementation of the Green Economy Objectives of Pori. During the next ICC 2.0 phase Pori will concentrate among other things in renewable energy and tourism, summarize Kari Granfors, project manager for ICC 2.0 in the City of Pori.
For the latest developments and more information, visit intelligentcitieschallenge.eu.