On December 13th, 2023, Living-in.EU and CitCom.AI partnered to host an online webinar about Testing and Experimenting Facilities (TEFs) under the Digital Europe Programme. The event featured three speakers from the CitCom.AI consortium: Joost Haugmark Jensen, Martine Delannoy, and Petra Dalunde.  

What is CitCom.AI? 

TEFs, which are co-funded by the Digital Europe Programme and national funding bodies, aim to support technology providers in testing and experimenting with AI-based technologies to bring trustworthy and secure AI to the European market. Currently, TEFs have been initiated in four high-impact sectors: agri-food, healthcare, manufacturing, and Smart Cities and Communities.  

CitCom.AI, which has been awarded for actualizing TEFs in the Smart Cities and Communities sector, focuses on testing and experimenting with AI-based conditions in real-world conditions to develop cities and communities. Local and regional stakeholders are among the key players involved in the initiative due to their identification of main societal needs and challenges, and their testing of AI solutions in real-life environments. CitCom.AI is divided into three main nodes: the Central node, the Nordic node, and the South node, each with a different area of focus. 

TEFs in the Central-node: Experience in Digital Flanders 

Digital Flanders, one of the 33 partners involved in the CitCom.AI consortium, aims to pilot use cases that consider the technological and environmental context, gathering requirements and identifying common challenges relevant to smaller cities and communities.  

With the support of CitCom.AI, Digital Flanders has focused on close-to-real-life environments such as sandboxes and living labs to maximize the uptake of AI-powered solutions while minimizing the waste of time and resources.  

TEFs in the Nordic-node: the RISE project 

The RISE Project, developed in the Nordic Super node within CitCom.AI, has identified and tested six physical infrastructures and three digital platforms in real environments.  

An example of a physical infrastructure tested under the RISE project is the Hornsgatan test zone, which aims to develop an AI system for traffic prediction and test its function in a traffic platform while complying with the AI Act and Interoperable Europe Act. If you are interested in getting involved with CitCom.AI as a city, region, community, or potential business partner, more information is available on the CitCom.AI webpage. 

How to get in contact with CitCom.AI? 

The recording of the session is only available to Living-in.EU signatories. If you need further information, you can check Citcom.AI website here. Or you can contact Living-in.EU secretariat (viviana.demonte@eurocities.eu or gabriela.ruseva@eurocities.eu)  which will put you in contact with the main coordinators and contact persons from the three nodes.