For a Human-Centered AI

FBK and Ferrara together for the development of Smart Cities

January 7, 2019

Signed a memorandum of understanding with the Municipality of Ferrara and the Provincial Development Agency Sipro Spa

Developing activities and research projects, innovation and advanced training in the domains of Smart Cities and Samart Communities. Those are the goals of the MoU signed today at the FBK offices at Povo by Fondazione Bruno Kessler, the City of Ferrara and the Provincial Agency for Development Sipro Spa.

The purpose of the agreement – which lasts three years, and can be extended for three additional years – is to promote the development of the urban and social fabric of Ferrara according to the modern perspective of the intelligent communities, i.e. smart cities.

To this end, the parties plan to implement projects capable of facilitating new ways of providing services, of communicating between citizens and administrations, of collaboration and participatory planning, making the whole city – both as a physical place and as a community – a big laboratory for the continuous experimentation of innovation developed in the context of the MoU.

The areas in which we will work will concern smart mobility, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, participation and online services, innovative and digital services in the tourism and culture fields, Open and Big Data.

Fondazione Bruno Kessler will make available the expertise developed in particular by the Smart Community Lab, its high-impact initiative that has been for years successfully engaged in the development of innovative projects and services for smart cities and communities, and that, with the CLIMB project, won the Climathon on sustainable mobility promoted by EIT Climate-KIC in Ferrara in October.

The director of the FBK ICT Center, Paolo Traverso, and the head of the Smart Community Lab group, Marco Pistore, the councilor for Smart City, Roberto Serra and the Councilor for Local Development, Caterina Ferri for the Municipality of Ferrara, and the sole director of Sipro, Paolo Orsatti, were present at the signing of the agreement.

“Through this important agreement, we share with Ferrara the vision for research and technology that enables sustainable development and a circular economy – Paolo Traverso said. We will take to Ferrara the experience we gained in Trentino and, at the same time, we will develop new skills and solutions that will also benefit our local area“.

FBK will also offer its expertise in the more general development of ICT innovation in the urban context, supporting the City of Ferrara in the development of strategic growth plans, collaborating with partners in the search for funding opportunities to complete projects of common interest.


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