REnaissance of PLaces with Innovative Citizenship And TEchnology

Bristol, as part of a consortium with San Sebastián and Florence, was recently awarded ‎€25 million 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 which empower citizens.
This award is part of the Smart Cities and Communities funding call, through EU’s Horizon 2020 innovation programme, that 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 Bristol consortium – REPLICATE (REnaissance of PLaces with Innovative Citizenship And TEchnologies) – was given the highest score of all the entries for its innovative proposal to integrate energy, transport and ICT at scale in the City.
Key to the project are innovative approaches to citizenship and citizen engagement in the experiments, with citizens directly involved in co-creating appropriate solutions and services drawing on their communities’ particular needs and desires for the future. Helen Manchester has been funded to work closely with Knowle West Media Centre and residents in the areas of Easton, Ashley and Lawrence Hill to co-produce research into the benefits and challenges when adopting a citizen led approach to change. The findings from this piece of work will be iteratively fed into the demonstrator project as it develops, ensuring the engagement team and the wider project team are able to gain in depth understanding of how the methods of engagement are being received ‘on the ground’ including identifying what is working well and what the challenges might be. Findings will also be shared with local groups in the neighbourhood partnership area who might begin to develop expertise in this way of working themselves.