Bristol University leads smart city drive
The University of Bristol has announced its involvement in a Horizon 2020 project that aims to put the UK city at the cutting-edge of the smart city movement.
The €25m ‘Renaissance of places with innovative citizenship and technologies’, or REPLICATE, project aims to create integrated smart city solutions to tackle familiar urban problems such as traffic congestion, poor air quality and unsustainable energy use. The project will primarily focus on east Bristol and aims to look at how we can further develop technology in order to create efficient, integrated and interactive urban environments that empower citizens.
This funding award is part of Horizon 2020’s Smart Cities and Communities call, which sought two to three high impact cities, so-called ‘lighthouses’, which facilitate collective learning and through which key findings and successful ways of working can be replicated by ‘follower cities’ in order to find solutions to urban problems. The project consortium also includes Bristol City Council, the University of the West of England, San Sebastián and Florence. The venture will engage with a large number and diverse range of local and international industry, SME and third sector partners.
Giving his thoughts on the project, Kevin O’Malley, city innovation team manager for Bristol City Council’s Connecting Bristol programme, said: “Winning the REPLICATE bid further shows how Bristol is leading the way in researching what the cities of the future could look like and we are delighted to be collaborating with our local partners and with colleagues in San Sebastián and Florence.
“It is great to now finally be able to implement the smart technology our bid covered in order to create cities that are better equipped and more resilient to the future.”
Further details of the REPLICATE bid will be confirmed in the coming months. The consortium was given the highest score of all the entries for its innovative proposal to integrate energy, transport and ICT at scale in the city.
