Derry / Londonderry (Northern Ireland) has been selected to participate, one of 100 cities, in the EU’s exciting and innovative Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) initiative.
This resulted from its earlier successful participation in the previous Digital Cities Challenge initiative which finished in July of last year. This earlier programme helped Derry-Londonderry build a roadmap for digital transformation with high quality and tailored expert support provided by the EU’s Directorate General responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). They also had the opportunity to network with up to 40 sister cities across Europe, sharing resources, identifying digital transformation goals and priority actions.
The new Intelligent City Challenge programme will facilitate Derry’s move to an implementation phase by:
- Carrying out detailed business cases and conducting performance assessments.
- Providing support to identify funding for priority actions.
- Cement relationships with other participating cities to, for example, co-design and co-create joint open data platform, jointly explore the European marketplace for city solutions and explore joint investments/procurements.
- Learn from and share experiences with international peers and mentors.
Commenting on the announcement, John Kelpie, Derry-Londonderry City Council CEO, stated that, “Derry-Londonderry has always viewed itself as outward-looking, part of the bigger network of European and global cities. Participation in the EU Intelligent Cities Challenge resonates strongly with our economic, societal and sustainability goals for the city and integral towns and rural areas and we see digital transformation as a positive force to realise the benefits for our city-region vision which we are co-creating with our neighbouring local authority, Donegal County Council, also connecting us to the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) for the Border and West region”.
Derry City and Strabane District Council’s economic development team worked closely with ERNACT to develop and manage its successful bid. The Council jointly established and manages ERNACT, its special digital transformation vehicle, with Donegal County Council.
