Smart cities in Europe: Financing the commercialisation of smart city technology
Published on 13th Jul 2015
This report looks at the structure, participants and funding models of existing smart city demonstration projects. It analyses why these were successful, discusses why more demonstration projects are not being launched and provides insights on what might be done to encourage more.
The first of a series of white papers on smart cities in collaboration with The Lawyer Research. Cities need innovative solutions to help meet the long-term challenges arising from urbanisation. But, for cities to justify investment in smart technology, it needs to have been proven at scale and delivered tangible benefits. Some of the most innovative technology is being developed by early-stage companies that simply don’t have the funding to finance a large scale demonstration of their technology. This is where the real funding gap emerges. This report looks at the participants in and the structure and funding models of existing smart city demonstration projects. It analyses why these were successful, discusses why more demonstration projects are not being launched and provides insights on what might be done to encourage more.
