News

Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) receives many requests from international delegations who are interested in collaborating and exchanging experiences on smart city topics.

We are looking for experts, companies and start-ups in our community who would like to share their knowledge, expertise and services with visiting delegations. Are you interested?

**Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) receives many requests from international delegations who are interested in collaborating and exchanging experiences on smart city topics.

We are looking for experts, companies and start-ups in our community who would like to share their knowledge, expertise and services with visiting delegations.**

If you are interested, please email cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com with the following information:

1. Which delegation you would like to meet with;
2. A short description of your presentation, product, or service;
3. How this information will benefit the visiting delegation.

International delegations requests:

1. South-Korean Trade Mission - 19 February:
This delegation consists of seven SME’s and representatives from governmental agencies supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. They are interested in the Dutch approach to building an innovation ecosystem, how government facilitates collaboration between corporations and SME’s, and best practices related to digitalization, smart city, and other smart industry topics.

2. Honda, Japan — 26 or 27 February:
Four person delegation interested in e-mobility and smart energy; smart grid developments; utilization of data and the overall structure, organization and management of smart city projects.

3. Finland Trade — 5 March:
Roadshow for Finish companies working on the energy transition. Meeting scheduled with Alliander to discuss smart energy/smart-grid projects. There is a possibility for relevant experts and stakeholders to join he exchange.

4. Sofia Investment Agency — 7 & 8 March:
The CEO of Sofia Investment Agency will be visiting along with a delegation of 10 political and business leaders. Their areas of interest are: smart city, digital connectivity & IoT, innovation & startup ecosystem, circular city and creative industries.

5. National Defense College of Thailand — 19 March:
Interest in best practices on triple-helix cooperation and smart grid technologies which can be transferred to Bangkok.

6. Slovakia Delegation of Mobility Experts — 19 March:
This delegation consists of specialists in e-mobility, parking strategy and smart technologies in the Moravian-Silesian Region in Slovakia. They are involved with the EU project RESOLVE and are interested in best practices and innovations related to electric mobility and clean logistics projects from Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Region.

7. CFAI Thyez Applied School (France) — 4 April:
A group of 13 vocational electrical engineering students are interested in a site visit related to smart energy, power supply and/or electrical installations.

8. Leverkusen, Germany Government Officials — 9 or 22 May:
This municipal delegation is interested in best practices regarding electric, smart and sustainable mobility. All presentations and tours must be in German.

ASC receives a lot of requests from international delegation interested in exchanging experiences and exploring collaboration opportunities. In this post we look back on 101 delegations we hosted from more than 20 countries in 2018.

What kind of groups visit Amsterdam Smart City and why?

Nearly half (47%) of delegations that visit Amsterdam Smart City are governmental groups and another 23% are academic. The rest are private sector (15%), press (8%) and public-private groups (5%). Most groups visit in hopes of meeting with relevant experts and stakeholders and learning from best practices. Another reason for visiting is to connect to innovative organizations and startups and to explore possibilities for collaboration. About 25% of delegations came from South Korea where the concept of smart or “ubiquitous” city originates. Other delegations come most often from USA, Japan, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Taiwan and UK.

Here are the top 10 things delegations tell us they find most inspiring about visiting Amsterdam:

1. Innovative area development — Amsterdam has a long history of innovative area development, with the Canal Belt from the 1600’s as one of the world’s most famous master plans. This culture of innovation is thriving in Amsterdam, with districts such as Circular Buiksloterham and climate-neutral Houthavens providing inspiration and best practices for master planning new city districts or transforming post-industrial areas.

2. Smart and innovative mobility solutions – While most are aware of Amsterdam’s position as a leading cycling city, many are surprised to discover Amsterdam is also a leader in electric and shared mobility. This can be seen in the form of Tesla taxis and electric buses across the city, as well as more than 2,000 electric vehicle-charging stations installed in public space. What is often most inspiring for groups is to learn that these approaches are not at all new - Amsterdam launched its first electric car-sharing system in 1974!

3. Johan Cruijff Innovation Area – Home of Ajax football club, Johan Cruijff Arena is one of the most innovative stadiums in the world. Instead of depending on diesel, the Arena constructed a micro-grid which provides uninterrupted power supply during events. It uses second life Nissan-fuel cells which store the renewable energy generated by its PV panels. The Arena is also a testing ground for innovative mobility, digital connectivity, crowd management and fan experience projects.

4. De Ceuvel Living Lab — A former shipyard now converted into a small office park for creative companies, De Ceuvel launched Jouliette, Amsterdam’s first block chain project for energy. In collaboration with CITI-XL, De Ceuvel also makes it possible for international delegations to test their technologies. Lora-enabled smart water meters from South Korea are currently being tested on the site.

5. Circl Pavilion — The Dutch government has laid out an ambitious plan to transition to a fully circular economy by 2050. Circl, a new circular building in Amsterdam’s Zuidas district offers some insight into achieve this goal. An initiative of ABN AMRO, the pavilion showcases new circular construction methods and business models. Almost all of the materials used in creating Circl are second-hand or are easily disassembled for reuse. For many delegations, Circl inspires and stimulates discussion about the transition to a circular economy.

6. Amsterdam is an ethical and responsible digital city — Digital connectivity and digital transformation are “buzz-terms” of interest for most visiting delegations. Many groups are initially disappointed to find out that Amsterdam is not the most advanced city when it comes to connected sensors, cameras and IoT devices. Instead, the focus is on the principles and values necessary to become an ethical and responsible digital city. This is best illustrated in the ‘Tada – data disclosed’ manifesto where six principles were spelled out for ensuring Amsterdam’s transition to a digital society which benefits everyone. Amsterdam also teamed up with Barcelona and New York to launch the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, laying out five key points regarding universal Internet access; privacy, data protections and security; transparency and accountability; participatory democracy; and open and ethical digital standards. Other cities are welcome to join!

7. Vibrant startups and innovation ecosystems — Visits to hubs such as B Amsterdam, TQ and Startup Village make it possible to experience Amsterdam’s thriving startup ecosystem first hand. But, what’s most inspiring for professionals working with startups on a daily basis is Amsterdam’s approach to inviting startups to help solve urban challenges through the city’s Startup in Residence program. Now in its fourth year, the program has expanded to other Dutch municipalities and ministries.

8. Amsterdam’s approach to open engagement and dialogue — Among the highlights for many delegations is the opportunity to join open events like those hosted by Pakhuis de Zwijger, Waag Society or DataLab, where various stakeholders come together to discuss and co-create solutions to urban challenges. All of this in-person interaction is matched with the opportunity to engage online via various community engagement, participatory budgeting, and crowd funding platforms such as Voor je Buurt, West Begroot, Gebied Online, Argu and Amsterdam Smart City’s very own platform of over 6,000 members!

9. Abundance of bottom-up and community initiatives – Amsterdam’s rich ecosystem of bottom-up and community lead initiatives is according to many experts the very reason why Amsterdam was named Europe’s Innovation Capital (iCapital) in 2016. Delegations are often inspired by these initiatives, be it neighbourhood lead worm-composting or off-grid urban-farm cafes. The Amsterdammers, Make your City contest and the We Make The City innovation festival are great examples of Amsterdam's commitment to further strengthening bottom-up initiatives.

10. Innovating through public-private-partnerships (PPP’s) – More than any specific project or technology, delegations are most impressed by Amsterdam’s approach to innovation through public-private partnership and community platforms. As neither a governmental organization nor a company, Amsterdam Smart City brings together public private partners and stakeholders motivated to work on the city of the future. Governmental delegations especially divulge that they struggle to find private sector partners who are committed to collaborating, and they are curious about Amsterdam's "secrets" to working in this way.

***Are you involved in an innovative project in Amsterdam or the metropolitan Area which you would like to showcase to national and international delegations in 2019?

Share your ideas and suggestions in the comments section below or send an email to cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com.***

Today there are over 40 “Living Labs” and hundreds of experiments, tests, pilots taking place in Amsterdam. Last Friday, 25 January 2019 we asked Amsterdam’s policy makers, knowledge partners and community leaders a series of questions in a fun interactive pub quiz format entitled “Living Labs - New Years Resolution”. The event was divided into various ePolling sessions with the aim to capture and visualise the various interpretations, definitions and attitudes of todays living labs. Make your opinion count! If you want to add your voice to the discussion please visit www.CITIXL.com and take the quick-scan 5 minute survey. We’ll be sharing the results next Friday, 8 February.

Recently, the city of Amsterdam widely distributed a booklet called 'Amsterdam klimaatneutraal 2050'. It is the starting point of a citywide consultation process. In this short blog post (in Dutch), I explain why this booklet might feed feelings of uncertainty in the first place instead of involving citizens in the transition process.

On Thursday 15 November we launched our new improved platform in Amstel3, the large transformation district in Amsterdam that we unsolicitedly adopted eight years ago in order to develop a new collaborative approach to transforming urban areas. Our activities and experiences in Amstel3 led to prototyping, testing and further developing the Transformcity platform as digital support for this process and the local community that we built in this district was formalised in the local organisation ZO!City.

On 15 November we celebrated two things. We launched the new platform but it was also our founder Saskia Beer’s goodbye party from ZO!City. The new team with Emilie Vlieger, who has built urban development communities before in Utrecht, and Manou Roomer and Violet Nijboer, is ready to bring ZO!City further and made agreements with the municipality about managing the community and moderating the platform together. The launch party also was a shared initiative.

Check https://zocity.transformcity.com/

The Charter for a Humane City has been written with Amsterdam in mind. 'Smart Amsterdam' has never been focused on narrow technological objectives.

If you like, you can download the Charter for a Humane City here (English version):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji37e4paxjnu60z/2018%2011%2025%20Stedelijke%20uitdagingen%20Charter%20Eng.docx?dl=0

De Nederlandse versie: Handvest voor een humane stad kun je hier downloaden: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mgy4740q03k9ksf/2018%2011%2025%20Stedelijke%20uitdagingen%20Charter.pdf?dl=0

TU Delft, AMS Institute, and Metabolic are working with an international consortium of parties to develop an interactive online application that maps resource flows in peri-urban Amsterdam – one of six living laboratories for the REPAiR project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

The tool equips city planners and urban designers with an interactive map of waste streams and shows how they could be usefully redirected, identifying the significant opportunities in peri-urban areas where the city and the countryside meet.

The recent Energy agreement is too much focused on the reduction of CO2 (very important indeed). It pays too little attention to the possible sources of energy, available in the future. In this post (in Dutch), I make a couple of calculations that indicate the toughness of the job producing sufficient electricity in 2050 to attain the 1,5%-target by deploying sun and wind energy only. I would be very happy if somebody would verify these calculations.

The BRIDE project is looking for participants for a study on understanding human interaction with “smart” infrastructure visa-a-vi machine learning.

The experiment will take place in Amsterdam February 2019. Participants will get to interact with the world’s first 3D printed footbridge.

If interested, please email Sage Cammers-Goodwin (s.i.cammers-goodwin@utwente.nl)

Do you want to make a difference and help us in building a circulair, smart en healthy future proof Amsterdam region? Are you looking for a hands on & inspiring job experience? Check our offer:

Hi everyone! I am looking for a job experience in Amsterdam to improve my skills in the area of circular economy and, if I find the right way, also to stay longer.
I have a Master Degree in Systemic Design: I developed several projects of ecodesign, systems design and circular economy at university and in the last year working with a little company of agronomists in Genoa. I am looking for a junior position or an internship.
Do you have some opportunities to share?
Thank you!

Possibly, in 2050 the word waste can be removed from our dictionaries. At that time, the Dutch economy will be circular according to the government. Meaning in essence that all raw materials are reused infinitely. In order to reach this goal, an agreement with respect to the use of raw materials has been concluded between 325 parties. Its first milestone is halving the use of primary raw materials before 2030[1].

In this post, I describe how Amsterdam is fundamentally improving the circularity of the construction and retrofitting of buildings

Meer rendement behalen met uw vastgoed en bijdragen aan de energietransitie?

Op 12 februari organiseert Zoncoalitie het seminar Zonne-Energie op Grootzakelijk Vastgoed in Hotel Okura. I.s.m. ING Real Estate Finance, Evershed Sutherland en Cushman&Wakefield.

Voor grootzakelijk vastgoedbezitters, beleggers, portefeuillehouders en huurders met een bruikbaar dakoppervlakte vanaf 1000m2.

Voor meer informatie en aanmelden (tot 1 febr.) zie www.zoncoalitie.nl/seminar

We're looking for smart city projects to connect with Investors who can help provide resources and experience with your business.

Typically, most needle-in-haystack methods like attending events, networking and list screening are inefficient, let’s face it.

A new standard to match the right capital to the right investment opportunities is what’s needed. Smart discovery and matching technology to act as the very first layer of filtering / matching online could solve this.

Our video explains how technology we are building can make these lead times shorter for both parties.

In 2016 hebben de overheden in de Metropoolregio Amsterdam in samenwerking met de Amsterdam Economic Board een prijsvraag digitale economie uitgezet. The Things Network was één van de winnaars die met een bedrag van € 500.000 aan de slag ging om het eerste – open en gratis te gebruiken – Internet of Things data netwerk ter wereld te ontwikkelen. Nu, twee en een half jaar later, kijken we wat er van deze ambitie is gerealiseerd en welke lessen zijn geleerd.

Interested in winning a free ticket to Beyond Next, the circularity festival (https://circle-economy.com/beyond-next), including travel and accommodation if you are not based in Amsterdam? Interested in contributing to a circular economy with your research and ideas?

Circle Economy has partnered up with the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, ABN AMRO, Gemeente Amsterdam and HEMA to run challenges to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

You can now submit existing research, facts and figures, inspirational examples, and other key insights related to these challenges. The challenges cover four major themes of education, product as a service, organic waste in a circular city, and single use plastics.

We will synthesise and openly share the results of this crowd-based exploration on Circle Lab, the online platform for the circular economy, for everyone to find inspiration in, learn from, and use in developing new solutions.

These results will also support attendees of the Beyond Next Challenge Track as they ideate and prototype new solutions to the challenges throughout the two-day festival.

THE PRIZE

Send in some research and you could win a free trip including entry tickets worth €150 and accommodation and travel expenses up to €1,000!

Eight winners will be chosen based on a combination of the number and the quality of their contributions.

For more information on the challenges and how to contribute, check out the challenges below:

Beyond Ownership > https://circle-lab.com/group/26/ideas
How can we promote access over ownership in the household?
Brought to you by ABN AMRO

Beyond Plastics > https://circle-lab.com/group/28/ideas
How can we transition to a system free of single-use plastics?
Brought to you by HEMA

Beyond Education > https://circle-lab.com/group/27/ideas
How can fashion education equip students for a ‘new reality’?
Brought to you by the Amsterdam Fashion Institute

Beyond Leftovers > https://circle-lab.com/group/29/ideas
How can we effectively collect and use organic waste throughout the city? Brought to you by the Gemeente Amsterdam

Happy to share with you that yesterday we launched the Here Mobility all-in-one mobility app, SoMo.
SoMo, derived from "social mobility", provides a single-app experience for various types of transportation.
Features

Through the Social Ride Sharing feature, SoMo allows users to share their ride with friends, family or co-workers, enabling them to choose who they ride with.

SoMo also introduces a concept called Gatherings – events that are defined by location, time, attendees and intent. Users can connect with friends and social circles based on common activities and ride together to a Gathering of any size. A Gathering can be a one-time event, like a concert, wedding or a night out with friends, or a recurring event, like afterschool clubs or a daily commute to work.

SoMo allows event organisers and participants to find the best way to get to such events and aims to make co-ordinating and travelling easy and social.

Download Today > www.SoMo.com

Beste mevrouw, heer,

Wilt u een schonere lucht in Amsterdam en tegelijk een fijnere en betere leefomgeving bij u in de buurt? Heeft u ideeën over hoe dat zou kunnen of moeten?

Dan willen wij u graag uitnodigen voor de bijeenkomst ‘Samen werken aan maatregelen voor schone lucht en een fijnere leefomgeving in Amsterdam’, die wij op 23 januari organiseren in het kader van het Europese luchtkwaliteit onderzoeksproject ClairCity (http://claircity.eu/).

De workshop is gratis. Inschrijven kan door een mail te sturen naar claircity@trinomics.eu of te bellen naar 010 341 4592). Er is een beperkt aantal beschikbare plaatsen, schrijft u zich daarom zo snel mogelijk in.

HERE Mobility is dedicated to driving smart mobility forward through high-tech solutions. With a sophisticated suite of products, HERE Mobility empowers customers and enables the businesses that cater to their needs. By standardizing and opening up access to all mobility services, connecting supply with demand, HERE Mobility is democratizing the mobility ecosystem to benefit all businesses and consumers.

The mobility ecosystem is hyper-fragmented, with obstacles hindering true freedom of movement. HERE Mobility aims to improve access to the world’s transportation and mobility services by bringing them all into one place.

Our team will be visiting Amsterdam on January the 7th till the 9th, get in touch to hear more on the mobility revolution.

A happy new year for all. In my new year 'long read' I have collected 4 core values, 20 challenges and 78 actions that can help make the city a happy place indeed.
If you prefer reading Dutch: https://hmjvandenbosch.com/2018/12/24/de-smart-city-voorbij-uitdagingen-voor-een-humane-stad%EF%BB%BF/