Project Coordinator

• Schweizerische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Berggebiete (SAB)
• Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za elektrotehniko, računalništvo in informatiko (UM FERI) – financial coordinator

Other partners

• Univerza v Ljubljani,
• SmartiS City, d.o.o.,
• Poliedra – Politecnico di Milano,
• Agenzia di Sviluppo Gal Genovese – DAGG,
• Energie und Umweltagentur Betriebs-GmbH Niederösterreich,
• Tiroler Zukunftsstiftung (Standortagentur Tirol),
• Software Competence Center Hagenberg GmbH,
• Association pour le Développement en REseau des Territoires et des Services – ADRETS,
• Regionalverband Südlicher Oberrhein,
• Bodensee Standort Marketing GmbH,
• Region Luzern West

Description

Alpine Space rural communities are deprived of highly needed jobs, good provision of services as well as a favorable climate for enterprenuership and social innovation, which result in a brain drain. Digitalization is a promising approach to counter the situation. A Smart Village approach for mountain areas could unlock the potential of local actors to make their region a more attractive place to live and work.

In cooperation with thirteen partners Smart Villages aims to brings together policymakers, business, academia and civil society in a quadruple helix approach to improve the framework for innovation through new forms of stakeholder involvement facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies. The Project is a strategic initiative of EUSALP AG5 and follows an integrative, participatory approach implying a city – village dialogue.

The project contributes to better framework conditions for innovation on two aspects: the organisational and societal part – working with RSGs involving policy level, academia, business and civil society – and the technical part – DEP Digital Exchange Platform and Toolbox with new digital products – and combining the strengths of both sides. Finally the transfer of the results to the policy level contributes to improve the political framework conditions for digital innovation.