The Living-in.EU movement is a collaborative platform for cities and communities to accelerate their digital transformation the 'European way' (citizen-centric approach, ethically and socially responsible data usage, co-creation with and engagement of citizens, open and interoperable standards). Created by a group of cities, city representative groups Eurocities, Open and Agile Smart Cities (OASC), the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), and supported by the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions, it was launched in December 2019 by the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The aim of Living-in.EU is to work together to scale up the use of data technology to tackle a range of interconnected challenges, including urban mobility, energy efficiency, and digital public services, while ensuring environmental sustainability in line with the European Green Deal. Cities, regions and Member States leaders are invited to join the community by signing the ‘Join, Boost, Sustain’ Declaration, which NGOs, businesses and non-EU cities can also subscribe to as supporters.

Who are we?

More than 110 cities and communities across Europe have signed the Join, Boost, Sustain Declaration, from large capitals to smaller rural municipalities; from digital pioneers, to those beginning their digital journey. Over 100 organisations are affiliated as supporters. These include research institutes, large enterprises, SMEs and not-for profit foundations, who all subscribe to the Living-in.EU principles. We aim for a digital, cohesive Europe where digital transformation improves the well-being of all EU citizens.

What are we trying to achieve?

Living-in.EU sees the city as a hub of digitalisation. Cities create a Local Data Platform, integrating data from across sectors, from both public and private sources for use by all. This allows AI-enabled services to be developed, improving outcomes for citizens, and to work toward deployment of Local Digital Twins.

A major challenge for cities is technology or vendor lock-in, which can come about as a result of seeking solutions to challenges as they arise. Living-in.EU takes an open and interoperable approach from the outset, by ensuring compatibility of data from different sources. Taking this approach from the bottom up, across the EU (and beyond), allows cities to share technical solutions, and creates a huge potential market for SMEs and start-ups. Security, trust and involvement of citizens in design are also key elements.

How are we doing it?

The Signatories are working together in five-subgroups to address common challenges faced by cities and communities. A signatory city can appoint nominee(s) to join sub-group(s).

Financial: Explore EU funding opportunities for cities, including the Digital Europe Programme (DEP), the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), as well as Regional Development Funds and Horizon Europe. Use shared public procurement practices to define specifications and reduce the cost of investing in digital platforms and related technologies.

Technical: Building on the Minimum Interoperability Mechanisms (MIMs) developed by SynchroniCity project and the CEF Building Blocks developed by the eSens large scale pilot, use commonly agreed standards to achieve interoperability of data, systems, and platforms among cities and communities and suppliers around the world. Develop new standards where required, e.g. Fair AI.

Education and Capacity Building: Develop the skills and capacity of local administration to deliver smart city solutions and avoid technology or vendor lock-in; develop and embed a citizen-centric approach to policy-making; facilitate knowledge sharing to scale up successful digital solutions.

Monitoring and Measuring: Help to develop and implement a framework called LOcal and Regional Digital Indicators (LORDI), built on existing methodologies, to measure and monitor the benefits for citizens, public authorities, businesses and other stakeholders at local level of digitalisation.

Legal: assess the legislative measures needed to provide a common EU framework for cross-sector and cross-border digital solutions to cities and communities.

The Signatory cities are also working on cross-cutting Iconic Projects which seek to accelerate the digital transition. One of these is Local Digital Twin, a virtual representation of a city, with live data feeds from multiple sources. It allows better provision of services, but also the simulation impacts of changes, ranging from tweaking traffic-flows, to modelling the impact of extreme weather events. See here for more.