iCity 2: Management project

The iCity research partnership aims at strenghtening the livable, intelligent and sustainable city (LIScity) of the future. It has initialized around 20 research projects regarding sustainable energy, mobility, ICT, city planning, infrastructures and finance. Partners of all public and private sectors are included in the research process. They are part of the iCity Network. During the initial project phase, the iCity partnership was build up and collaborations between researchers and partners were established with concrete impulse, exploratory and SME projects. The intensification phase will focus on preparing the continuation of the partnership in form of the iCity Innovation Hub.

Based on the IAF mission statement "Metropolitan Region of Tomorrow", iCity has helped to define the HFT research profile to “Intelligent City”. This is mainly due to the consolidation of inter- and transdisciplinary project cooperation with partners. iCity has led to interfaculty projects allowing researchers to work cross boundaries. This is due to guiding and impulse-giving structures of the project itself that allowed connecting partners and systematically generating new research projects from within the network.

The main focus of the iCity management project is the development and operation of the iCity Innovation Hub. By involving all relevant stakeholders, the hub is systematically defined based on the prevailing needs and transferred to a self-supporting corporate form for consolidation. The central element of the hub is the management of the iCity partnership. Building on the successes of the first project phase, partnership management will be further developed and aligned with the needs of the partners. An iCity lab is meant to be an attractive showroom for iCity technologies that will serve the entire partnership, research and teaching through its modularity. This is intended to promote transfer and to strengthen internal and external connections and to promote teaching in the realm of the “Intelligent City”.

The iCity management project reaches out to enlarge the network, to stimulate research projects and the transfer of research results. Also, the Hub is intended to strengthen independent HFT research in the field of LIScity in close coordination with the iCity stakeholders. To reach its goals, the Hub uses innovative processes to address ideas from the partnership and to develop them in creative settings with new methodology.