CITY VOICES: Javier Pereiro

 

FEUGA, the Galician Enterprise-University Foundation, is a non-profit private organization focused on promoting the transfer of knowledge from the three Galician Universities to the industry and society. This objective has led FEUGA to focus efforts in promoting the participation of the Galician entities, including cities and regional public bodies, in H2020 and other European initiatives. In particular, Galician cities are very active in the implementation of Smart City solutions and are highly interested in exploring technologies and policies already implemented in other cities in order to better exploit the potentialities of becoming an advanced Smart City at European Level. This is the main reason for participating in the CITyFiED project, becoming active member of a network of cities and related organizations interested in the share and capitalization of existing and tested Smart City solutions.

 

 

FEUGA will actively promote the CITyFiED activities among Galician cities, allowing them to share main results obtained from their current Smart Cities initiatives. This is the case, for example of Santiago de Compostela (among others), capital city of Galicia, which will be invited to share with the community the results obtained in its Smart Cities projects such as the FP7 PLEEC or the SmartIago initiave.

 

 

The way the local and regional governments are supporting Smart Cities’ costs in the region is an open issue to be tackled by promoting a real cooperation with other cities and organizations integrating the CITyFiED community. This can be achieved with the establishment of public-private partnerships which will allow better exploit the existing funding opportunities (public and/or private sources) and explore new business models for ensuring Smart Cities’ affordability and sustainability.