The CITyFiED project will be crossing the finish line in a few months. Looking back, in a span of four and a half years, the project has dedicated a lot of its effort in involving as many cities as possible in the replication process. Throughout the whole project, the so-called CityCluster grew in terms of numbers and relevance in the project. The cities of Udine (Italy) and Ludwigshafen (Germany) hosted two project meetings that highlighted the strong connection and relation between the CITyFiED demo sites and the Cluster cities.
The involvement and commitment of the Cluster cities were crucial since the beginning of the project as these assure the replication potential of CITyFiED’s results. The final aim of this clustering endeavour goes beyond simple awareness. It will provide the cities a virtual replication model, which allows them to see how the CITyFiED city district retrofitting approach could be applied in their own areas.
“We believe that this way of working, where cities which are facing the same renovation challenges as our demo sites can have speedy access to new methods and best practices, will benefit both the project and the cluster cities”, said IVL project manager Jeanette Green in the beginning of the project.
The project’s model for evaluating replication potential is a framework that should help CITyFiED city cluster review the probability of replicating the retrofitting methodology being implemented in the demo sites. After performing a series of energy data collection sessions, workshops and interviews, we successfully developed the replication plans that are now up and running. These plans act as operational guides tailored to each of the cluster city’s needs. An example in this case is the set of suitable technologies to be implemented for each city. With this helpful tool, CityCluster cities can now replicate with ease the successful stories of the demo sites in their districts.
Throughout the project, the Dissemination Secretariat created a Community of Interest with the goal of amplifying its replication potential. So far, the list includes 45 European cities. They will face the same renovation challenges as the demo sites and the cluster cities; they were offered to partake in several technical study tours, workshops and webinars and thus access to the projects’ full knowledge and expertise.
The project focuses mainly on replication and innovation for future smart district and cities. We are proud to claim that we have created a committed and engaged community of follower cities . In the next six months, dissemination of our results will be essential as we will seek the high involvement and participation of the whole CITyFiED community in big international events and conferences.