Project description
Pioneering smart solutions for urban challenges
Rapid urbanisation presents a pressing challenge globally, straining infrastructure and resources. Cities grapple with issues ranging from traffic congestion to environmental degradation, hindering liveability and sustainability. The transition to Smart and Sustainable Cities emerges as a strategic imperative to address these complex urban dilemmas. In this context, the EU-funded NexTCity project focuses on advancing city digital twins – sophisticated models aiding city governance. By refining data collection, analysis, and visualisation, it aims to revolutionise decision-making in areas like mobility, environment, and security. Through staff exchanges, workshops, and conferences, NexTCity fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing, positioning Portugal as a hub of urban expertise. As cities evolve, NexTCity will help guide municipalities toward sustainable, tech-driven futures.
Objective
The transition to Smart and Sustainable Cities is a key strategic aim at both the European and Portugal levels and a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). In support of this goal, NOVA IMS and its NOVA Cidade Urban Analytics Lab have invested in developing research expertise in the areas of urban intelligence and analytics for the last few years. City digital twins is a new area of research that can contribute to improving solutions for city governance and decision-making across mobility, environment, energy, security, and the reduction of carbon emissions.
The NexTCity project intends to enhance NOVA IMS’s scientific and technological excellence in city digital twins, namely in all their stages of development: data collection and integration; analysis prediction and simulation; data visualization; and data governance to be used in novel strategies for smart sustainable cities. In addition, it aims to raise its research profile and excellence by twinning with 2 well-established institutions: University Jaume I (ES) and KU Leuven (BE) with whom a consolidated strategic research approach will be developed to ensure the exploitation of the NexTCity results, namely through joint research initiatives that can leverage the outcomes of the exploratory research project proposed. This will allow for mutual learning and knowledge transfer activities, cross-fertilization and networking opportunities for increased research collaborations.
NexTCity includes staff exchanges, workshops, summer schools, and the City Digital Twin Conference to provide the necessary basis to create a true centre of expertise in Portugal within a new European network of researchers. In this way, NexTCity will both advance Portuguese scientific and research capabilities while disseminating knowledge to the wider community to support the creation of new technology industries and apply the latest tools to help smart municipalities address the challenges to come in what concern urban planning.
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
1099 085 Lisboa
Portugal