Bringing smartcity ideas to life

Mission

In our globalized world, cities are increasingly functioning as laboratories for the future. They are the ideal environment for the development of concrete answers to complex issues. Cities function more and more as the primary incubators for social, cultural, political and technological innovations.

At the same time, our cities are facing major challenges. Air and noise pollution, demographic change and growth, worsening traffic congestion, growing diversification in population, healthcare and social challenges, ...

The increasing complexity that our cities are facing today demands for a policy that focuses on good governance and that distances itself from old political culture. Despite the growing experimental margin in urban environments and the imminent challenges, the dynamics needed to address these challenges remain insufficient in order to implement powerful and substantiated "futur proof" solutions in our cities.

Exactly on this short-fall, Citylab wants to position itself. Citylab wants to be the link between available know-how, experiences and insights, on the one hand, and the growing need for concrete innovations that contribute to sustainable urban development on the other.

The aim is to connect concrete projects to the lack of cohesion between cities, companies, knowledge institutions and citizens when it comes to urban innovations. This generates fresh insight, surprising cross-fertilization and innovative ideas. Based on this, Citylab explicitly wants to bridge the bridge to practice. Ideas should not remain ideas. Available solutions must be able to spread and refine in implementation in order for them to be truly visible, tangible and measurable to the city of the future.