#connectedinEurope: Fruitful exchange between partner cities

The workshop was the first opportunity to introduce the newest members of #CIE: the cross-border partnership Basel-Freiburg-Mulhouse. During the workshop, David Gelantia from the city of Freiburg presented the city's intermunicipal activities as well as the current data space project with Freiburg and Mulhouse.

There was also a lively exchange between the individual tandems during the meeting. The different activities of the cities were presented, which once again confirmed the wide range of topics covered by the project: LoRaWAN, digital twins, data spaces, hackathons, co-creation in smart cities and climate monitoring, to name but a few. 

The second focus was on the EU activities of the tandem cities. After a short interactive part, the Smart City experts and consultants Damian Wagner-Herold and Andrea Geyer-Scholz showcased various opportunities to participate in EU projects and activities. They gave the cities practical tips on how to select calls and apply for funding and presented the latest EU Life Call. 

Alma Serica, EU Policy Officer from Arezzo, provided an excellent addition to the topic from the perspective of a municipality. Arezzo is very active in various European initiatives, such as the Green City Accord and various networks. Alma not only presented the city's projects to the participants, but also showed them various ways of navigating the EU funding landscape. Additionally, Ioannis Palamidas from the municipality of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni gave insights into the city's European activities, such as the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), with a video contribution. 

The workshop proved to be a good opportunity to strengthen the network between the European municipalities, to exchange experiences and to generate impulses for further activities and projects. In 2024, the #CIE participants will continue to work together on the smart and common-good-oriented development of their cities.