Customers are partners in our mission

The ITEA Smart City Advisory Board

The ITEA Smart City Advisory Board (SCAB) was established in 2019 with the purpose to create continuous dialogue between cities and innovative Smart City technology developers by sharing best practices, challenges and innovative solutions on an international level, to finally make the cities a better place to live in. During an online meeting on 27 May 2021, representatives of the cities of Antwerp, Brno, Dortmund, Istanbul, region of Northern Hesse, Stockholm, Tampere and Zaragoza have signed an MoU with ITEA to become part of the ITEA Smart City Advisory Board (SCAB). This shows their strong commitment to stay at the forefront of Smart City innovation to create a better city for their citizens. Ghent, Rennes and Zwolle also joined the meeting. The main objective of the session was to share the urgent requirements of each city and to find potential collaboration opportunities among the cities. More details of these challenges will be presented during the ITEA PO Days that will take place online in September 2021, as input for potential new project proposals.

ITEA Cyber Security Advisory Board's first session was a unique opportunity to realise some common interests between cities, namely in the field of urban dat a, where it appears that most cities are willing to grasp the vast array of opportunities that it may bring to improve decision-making and economic development in our cities. Excited for the next session and the ideas that the industry will brin g onto the table to help us cities seize this great opportunity.

The ITEA SCAB will continue to grow and stimulate Smart City innovations through international collaboration. Are you a city representative and interested to become a SCAB member? Contact the ITEA Office at info@itea4.org.

The ITEA Cyber Security Advisory Board

In addition, ITEA has established the Cyber Security Advisory Board (CySAB) in July 2021, with the similar purpose to create a dialogue between Cyber Security customers and Cyber Security technology developers, to identify the current challenges and possible solutions, that may already exist or are to be developed.

At present, the CySAB consists of 11 members and additional interest has been shown by several others. The Advisory Boards will meet (online) twice a year, where one meeting will focus on discussing the customer needs and the other one on innovative results of ITEA projects. The first online CySAB meeting took place on 6 July 2021 with all 11 members. Outcomes of this meeting shall also be shared during the Online ITEA PO Days 2021.

ITEA emphasises the importance of Market Value chain in R&D&I projects to create economic and social impact. Therefore, I am very grateful for the trust and dedication of the municipalities to join SCAB. As it is obvious in the outcomes of the SCAB meeting, software innovation is mandatory for Smart Cities. The challenges shared by the cities need integrated solutions and international collaboration to build not only a Smart City concept but an ‘Agile and Living City’ via online decision-making systems.

We are very excited about these initiatives that are gaining shape and we are convinced that both customers and the ITEA R&D&I Community can strongly benefit from this new collaboration.

*Title based on Sephen Hyken's quote