In the beginning of November 2023, the achievements of EERA JPSC were presented to the audience of Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona. SCEWC connects leaders from the most innovative companies, governments, and organizations to move cities towards a better future. This year, the event gathered 1.106 exhibitors and 577 speakers from more than 800 cities. A total of 25.300 attendees participated in 273 sessions.

Key focus of the EERA JPSC session was the Role of EERA JPSC members in urban innovation across Europe and Beyond. In the last year, universities and RTOs went much farther than just scientific publications. They worked as coordinators, moderators and integrators of large-scale demos in European Smart Cities. In addition to that, they engaged national stakeholder ecosystems to take part in fulfilling the strategic objective of the SET Plan, to deliver 100 Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) until 2025. Besides, they produced advice and strategic support to EU initiatives such as REPowerEU and the recast of the Energy Perfomance in Buildings Directive. Finally, EERA JPSC produced a large amount of joint scientific results and spun out into the successful COST Action PE-EU-NET, which among other things produced the open and growing Database of Positive Energy Districs.

Notably, this year’s Smart City Expo Barcelona saw EERA JPSC for the first time since its restructuring into three working groups took place at the end of 2022. The work is now structured in three pillars: Sustainable Buildings, Smart and Liveable Neighbourhoods and Communities and Smart Cities. The presentation of Michal Kuzmic (CTU UCEEB) drew the attention of potential new members as well as collaborators from SCC projects.