What is the LDT Citiverse EDIC

LDT Citiverse EDIC stands for "European Digital Infrastructure Consortium on Local Digital Twins towards the Citiverse". It is a new type of legal entity created by the European Commission to develop and operate common digital infrastructure for local (city) digital twins. It promotes interoperability between cities, reducing digital fragmentation, and supporting the development of open services and standards in the EU. It operates as an independent legal entity and currently brings together 15 Member States. It will create a shared repository of tools and services, manage common infrastructures, and strengthen Europe’s digital capacity through multinational collaboration.

Why a national activation approach

The LDT Citiverse EDIC will operate digital infrastructure that can be used by cities in EU member states to develop, enhance and connect their data platforms and digital twins. On the national level, there are existing programmes and funding opportunities, research projects, digital infrastructure such as EuroHPC supercomputers, data centres, AI factories. To make the most of this existing and upcoming infrastructure, avoid multiplication of efforts and fragmentation, the LDT Citiverse EDIC aims to organise the participation in the EDIC into national ‘umbrella’ ecosystems.

Purpose of the national activation session

The national activation sessions are organized jointly by the LDT Citiverse EDIC and the Living-in.EU community. These sessions are the first step towards activating a national EDIC-ecosystem of cities and stakeholders around Networked Local Digital Twins and Citiverse services.

They will:

• Explain how the national activation approach works in practice
• Showcase proven models for national umbrella networks and governance structures from Member States
• Highlight ongoing national collaborations, existing hubs and networks, as well as local perspectives and use cases
• Co-create input on valuable EDIC services tailored to national needs
• Drive onboarding of cities into the EDIC framework

Agenda

14:00-14:10 | Welcome and introduction (Jan Wester, LDT Citiverse EDIC)

14:10-14:30 | The national activation approach in practice (Jan Wester and Arianna Gnecco, LDT Citiverse EDIC; Lucia Merlino, AnciLab)

14:30-14:45 | Local Digital Twins ecosystem in the Netherlands – governance, actors, roles (Koos Boersma, Geonovum Digital Twin)

14:45-15:15 | National projects and infrastructure in Italy (Antonella Longo, University of Salento)

15:15-15:30 | What is in it for a city? (Gelsomina Macchitella, City of Brindisi)

15:30-15:50 | Break

15:50-16:50 | Interactive workshop – identifying cities’ needs for the service catalogue (Jaan Saar, LDT Citiverse EDIC)

16:50-17:00 | Conclusion and next steps