During 2 years, I managed the innovation portfolio of the Digital Cities Action Line (open innovation activities, mature startups), in close collaboration with the EIT Digital Accelerator team for the go-to market aspects, and the Communications team for the dissemination aspects.
Around 8-10M euro were invested each year in a dozen of innovation activities in Europe. I had the opportunity to lead a variety of stakeholders to the market. I often communicated at major international events such as Smart City Expo World Congress, ITS World Congress, New mobility World (IAA) or TU Automotive Europe … Besides, I was also engaged in education with the design of masters’ summer schools and professional schools (MOOC) at the European scale.
The Digital Cities Action Line (or thematic area) leverages the digital transformation of the cities through centralized, participative and collaborative interactions between city actors: government, municipalities, city service providers, industry, and citizens. This transformation enables the deployment of information, mobility and safety services in the cities and foster citizens awareness. Mobility, information and safety are the anchor points for innovations driven by the Action Line.
A multidisciplinary approach including service design, urbanism, and social sciences is used to provide an accurate understanding of the concrete problems cities are facing, and the means to overcome these, in particular by developing sustainable business models and adoption of appropriate technology.
As a result, I had the chance to lead a portfolio of dozens activities each year on the period 2017-19. I was involved in the selection with a independent pool of experts. I supervise innovation activities during the year all over Europe. The Digital Cities Line’s topics were numerous : open-source platforms , IoT supporting shops, alert systems at metropolitan scale, civic techs supporting global debates, connected and autonomous vehicles, smart parking, mobility as a service, adaptive public lightning, application supporting urban safety, algorithms evaluating air pollution, urban drones for safety, computer vision supporting carpooling services, IoT platform for small businesses, etc.
2019 PORTFOLIO AND PAST SUCCESS STORIES
EIT Digital delivers breakthrough digital innovations to the market and breeds entrepreneurial talent for economic growth and improved quality of life in Europe. It does this by mobilizing a panEuropean ecosystem of over 130 top European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes. (read more)