Coordination model on intelligent urban development leads the way to cooperation
A research and education coordination model called Smart City Lab was developed to strengthen cooperation and visibility of the City of Tampere’s Smart Tampere development project and Smart City projects in the Tampere Region. The purpose of the coordination model is to gather together Smart City actors and enterprises.
The need for the coordination model arose when it was noticed that the higher education community participates in several Smart City projects but has no overall picture of related work and actors.
The aim was to use the Tampere Universities community’s research and education competence in urban development.
“The higher education community’s knowledge, research and competence were directed to develop the Smart Tampere themes. This enabled joint development, education and research projects between the City of Tampere, Tampere Universities community and enterprises,” tells Project Manager Petri Pohjola from TAMK.
Model tested and new plans started
The Smart City Lab’s task was to identify and build connections to establish a research and education network on the Tampere Smart City themes.
“Through intensive work, we succeeded in building a realisable coordination model which has been presented to more than 20 visitor groups from Japan, China, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The feedback on the simple implementation has been very good,” Project Manager Kai Hämäläinen from the Smart City Lab tells.
Smart City is a global megatrend and several large urban development projects are underway around the world.
“A city of the size of Tampere has better possibilities to develop intelligent urban solutions than for example a metropolis,” states Pohjola.
The built organisational coordination model is unique. During planning of the coordination model we already heard what actors expect of the Smart City theme and into what direction it should be developed.
“In future we need to apply the built coordination model in practice and nominate coordinators from the higher education community to the nine Smart Tampere themes. We will also consider if it could be developed to a 6Aika urban development project,” Hämäläinen specifies.
The Smart City Lab has also spawned new projects.
“We have already succeeded in creating two spinoff projects. One of them is called Älypysäkki and it is estimated to start in September. The coordination model could be a potential tool in deepening cooperation between the city and higher education community,” describes Hämäläinen.
In the long run, the Smart City Lab of the Tampere Universities community is a channel and platform which connects different actors, organisations and people and promotes research and education on intelligent urban development in Tampere.
Further information
Project Manager Kai Hämäläinen, Tampere University, tel. +358 50 3187 697, kai.hamalainen [at] tuni.fi (kai[dot]hamalainen[at]tuni[dot]fi)
TAMK’s Project Manager, Petri Pohjola, tel. +358 50 5927 460, petri.pohjola [at] tuni.fi
