CARD4ALL is a Transfer network of the URBACT programme focused on the implementation of innovative services and technologies through a Citizen Card System. Building on the city card experience of the city of Gijón, it has gathered five more cities – Aveiro, Clermont-Ferrand, Jurmala, Sassari and Suceava – in an initiative that between 2018 and May this year has promoted the sharing and mutual learning of city officers on how to exploit this tool for improving urban life.
But 3 years pass in a blink of an eye, and while a lot has been achieved in the project, the transformation potential of innovation and of digital technologies is endless, in a way that keeps you dreaming of more and leaves cities wondering how they can move on to the next level and extend their collaboration. This at a time when the new European Union multiannual funding framework for the period 2021-2027 starts to unfold, and opportunities from different programmes and initiatives are being presented. What better time than this then to gather – online, as we all must these days – and review forthcoming funding opportunities that could help city card development? This is the challenge that the project has placed to their ad-hoc expert: to organize a series of two half-a-day webinars, for project partners and all other interested in the topic, that could signpost the way towards a brighter urban future, making use of digital city card technology.
The Webinars: As the Card4All ad-hoc expert is not a man to say no to a challenge, two webinars were organized in February and March. The first one was held on 24 February and presented an overview of the new multiannual funding framework of the European Union for 2021-2027, and main opportunities for smart city investments, to an audience of over 50 registered participants that in addition to the Card4all partners included representatives from Eurocities and some of its members and individual experts. The contents covered Horizon Europe, Urban Innovative Actions, Interreg and other programmes including examples of previously approved projects, in areas related to city card implementation, and hints and tips for participants, benefiting from the trainer experience as evaluator and project manager.
The second webinar was held on 9 March and was a more practical session on how to start preparing a proposal for Horizon Europe building from the draft workplans to identify relevant calls and highlighting tools and methods to identify the best partners, develop a first synopsis and promote the idea in the right channels. It was delivered to an audience of over 20 registered participants, mostly from Card4all but again open to external participants.
What’s next:
In case you are hearing about these webinars for the first time and you’re sorry you missed them, no need to be. The full recording of both webinars is available on YouTube on the channel https://www.youtube.com/user/inovamais , so you can follow them at any time that you like. And there’s more: two short videos, highlighting the main topics covered in webinars and their relevance for the project, have been produced within Card4all, and can be visualized at the same YouTube channel or from the project website, at https://urbact.eu/card4all So, if you are a city officer or professional with an interest in smart applications and especially in how to engage citizens with their city, and you’re wondering what opportunities will be available in the next years, join the Card4all extended family and enjoy our webinars. Maybe we’ll be partners in a future project!
About the author:
Eurico Neves, @ecneves, is the CEO and Founder of INOVA+ S.A. a leading firm in innovation studies in Europe. He directly created or participated in the creation of more than 10 new firms, in the services and information technologies field, since 1997. Before he has worked for the European Commission in Luxembourg at DG Enterprise between 1994 and 1997 and has participated in the team developing the European Green Paper on Innovation in 1995. In 2017 he was invited to become a member of the World Economic Forum's ‘Digital Leaders of Europe’ Community, that he joined in July of that year, having since contributed to the annual report “Innovate Europe - Competing for Global Innovation Leadership” presented in the Davos 2019 WEF forum. He cooperates with URBACT since 2005 and is the currently the Lead Expert of the IoTXchange APN and the Ad-Hoc expert for the Transfer Network “Card4all”.