About ATELIER

ATELIER is an AmsTErdam and BiLbao cItizen drivEn smaRt cities project funded by the European Commission under the H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020 Smart Cities and Communities call. Coordinated by the City of Amsterdam, the project combines the expertise and the commitment of 30 partners from 11 countries.

ATELIER focuses on developing citizen-driven Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the two Lighthouse Cities Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Bilbao (Spain). Their successful implementations will then be replicated and tested for feasibility in the six Fellow Cities Bratislava (Slovak Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Copenhagen (Denmark), Krakow (Poland), Matosinhos (Portugal), and Riga (Latvia).

Via dedicated PED Innovation Ateliers, ATELIER will strengthen the local innovation ecosystem and thus remove legal, financial or social barriers to the implementation of smart solutions. The PED Innovation Ateliers will be self-sustaining, continuing for a long time after the project has ended. They will thus become engines for the upscaling and replication of solutions within the ATELIER cities and beyond.

To achieve successful implementations of energy saving measures, ATELIER puts citizens at the centre of all its activities: residents (<9000), local initiatives and energy communities will be included in decision-making processes and activities and will be strongly engaged in the development of the technical solutions throughout the project. Citizens will be deeply involved in the PED Innovation Ateliers as well to create a maximum impact for the PEDs.

To really pave the way for more ‘positive’ cities in Europe, each of the eight ATELIER cities will develop a City Vision 2050 that constitutes the roadmap for upscaling solutions in the long term. The main objective of this is to guarantee a seamless city transformation from planning to implementation and further upscaling and replication.