New initiative for more sustainable urban life Europe is committed to position itself as a key player in the market of innovative products for rapidly growing urban populations. An EU-funded initiative improved regional framework conditions to encourage dynamic innovation in embedded system technologies and their application domains. Industrial Technologies Energy Fundamental Research © AnutaBerg, Shutterstock The Europe 2020 strategy clearly signals the importance of industrial competitiveness for growth and jobs as well as the ability to address grand societal challenges in the coming years. Mastering and deploying key enabling technologies (KETs) is central to strengthening Europe’s capacity for industrial innovation for new products and services that deliver smart, sustainable and inclusive European growth. Sustainable living in an urban world goes hand in hand with energy-saving solutions, improved health and aged care services, and generally better quality of life. To address these challenges, researchers initiated the EU-funded project CLINES (Cluster-based Innovation through Embedded Systems technology). The project identified embedded systems as a KET for the smart cities to develop advanced products and services. CLINES’ innovation strategies were based on the traditional triple-helix collaboration involving industry and business, universities and public agencies, including also the end user. The project partnership built on the cooperation and experience of four European research-driven regional clusters stemming from North Denmark, Bavaria, Flanders and the Basque Country. Together, the clusters were called to solve challenges regarding smart mobility, smart living and smart environment. CLINES delivered a joint action plan, stating the overall objectives, sub-goals, associated actions and stakeholders to build a sustainable multi-cluster international network focused on embedded systems for smart cities. The end objective was to encourage international cooperation and unlock new business opportunities in Europe and beyond. The formulated action plan was based on a number of recommendations supporting the synergistic unlocking of new finance sources to boost the development of innovative eco-design solutions. The project offered small- and medium-sized enterprises with valuable supporting tools and innovation strategies to increase their competitive edge on an international level. Efforts were also devoted to the development of innovation methodologies through a series of workshops. CLINES innovation strategies can serve as a basis for successful innovation projects both internally in each cluster and across the European clusters. Keywords Embedded systems, key enabling technologies, CLINES, smart cities, smart mobility, smart living
