After a successful kick-off meeting organized in February, the NSPA-led consortium met for a second time to discuss smart initiatives as well as common challenges related to smart cities in sparsely populated areas. Over 30 stakeholders from the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian regions involved in the NSPA-network, as well as from partner regions in Spain and Poland, participated in this two-day meeting held in Brussels on 16th and 17th September.

The goal of this Capacity building meeting was to share information and experience about existing plans and projects in the participating cities, regions and universities. The meeting participants also had the opportunity to hear examples of EU-funded smart city projects. Parallel sessions were organized in order enhance in-depth discussion about ICT, energy efficiency and transport related topics and possible next steps of cooperation in these areas. Over the next months, the members of the consortium will continue working on project proposals and planning future field visits.

The consortium, coordinated by East & North Finland EU office, is part of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Smart cities and communities. The goal of this European initiative is to bring together public and private actors who wish to come up with innovative and transferable solutions to the common challenges that European cities face today. The cities, regions, universities and other organizations committed thought the NSPA-consortium can benefit from this platform to learn about best practice examples from other cities, to get visibility to their smart city activities, to meet potential partners for future projects.