On 1 July 2019, the Interreg 2 Seas project Smart City Innovation Framework Innovation
(SCIFI) announced its second open call for European startups, SMEs and companies
working on Smart City solutions.

This is an excellent opportunity for innovators in the smart city sector to work with middle
sized European cities. The four cities involved in the SCIFI project, Mechelen, Bruges, Delft
& Saint Quentin have together defined 9 open data challenges for this call.
The goal behind the SCIFI project is establishing relationships and methodologies for cities
to source smart, data-driven solutions to their urban challenges.

Nine challenges

The second call consists of nine challenges, set by the project partner cities, which
prospective applicants are asked to address. Apart from funding to support pilots, the
selected startups, SMEs and companies will receive extensive support during the pilot phase
of 6 months. Successful pilots also receive the opportunity for a full solution implementation
by the SCIFI cities and/or its ecosystem (>40 cities).

These are the challenges set under the programme: http://smartcityinnovation.eu/opencall-
2019/

Opportunities for entrepreneurs

Successful applicants will have the opportunity to work closely and directly with cities and
city clusters to develop open data-based solutions (pilots) to tackle key smart city issues.
They receive funding and support for their data-centric Smart City solution, including:

• Funding of up to €10,000 to support pilot, proof of concept, minimum viable product or
other solution development goal;

• Full solution implementation opportunity for successful pilots;

• Co-creation of the solution
and full access to and support from the relevant cities and stakeholders;

• Six-month
business accelerator powered by Faubourg Numerique, Agoria and Cambridge CleanTech;

• Introduction to cities, investors and mentors

• A range of data science, open data and
business skills trainings;

• Dissemination opportunities of your solution amongst peers and
cities via SCIFI communication channels and events (in Belgium, The Netherlands and
France);

• Access to technology and datasets, as well as training and advice by SCIFI
experts.

Open Data & Interoperability

SCIFI is looking for smart city solutions that are robust, interoperable and sustainable: a
solution that works for one city must be technically easily replicable in other cities.
Replicability is key within SCIFI. The challenges must be addressed via the use of open data
sets (existing or to be generated by design). The consortium will publish available and
relevant data (open or that can be opened) based upon an open data guidance package for
cities and on the SCIFI Data Portal to provide organisations with a federated entry point to
SCIFI open data and IoT resources.

First call

The 1st call in 2018 was a major success with 6 innovators selected for pilot projects. The
winners entered a 6-month accelerator programme with the four cities who are part of the
project. http://smartcityinnovation.eu/pilots/
For more information on how to apply to the SCIFI open call, please visit: