What is Smart Rīga?

In Spring 2021, Rīga City Council launched three smart city living labs – one in VEF district, second in the Riga Technical University campus in Ķīpsala, and third in the territory of the University of Latvia in Torņkalns.  The establishment of living labs was a strong turning point for taking more active steps for Rīga to become a smart city.   

Since then, Rīga has actively participated in and supported various programs that facilitate the creation of innovative solutions. During these programs, Rīga has assisted with the deployment process in the living labs, that has allowed to detect the main barriers in the coordination process, giving an opportunity to set fast track deployment procedure for smart city solutions. This gives a unique opportunity to deploy the solution that meet city’s challenges in Rīga within two months.   

Collaboration is at the core of the smart city activities. Engaging with private, public and academic sector, working with start-ups is something Rīga is facilitating on a day-to-day basis. At the moment, Rīga is focusing on challenge-driven innovation culture – within the city, and also in cooperation with external partners.   

Over the past years, Rīga has taken an active participation in the EU projects that focus on solving urban mobility and smart city challenges. Since Autumn 2021, Rīga has been a leading city partner of the EIT Urban Mobility – largest urban mobility network in Europe. In Spring 2022, Rīga was selected as one of the cities to participate in the EU Mission for 100 climate neutral and smart cities by 2030.   

In 2023 Rīga has started developing the Smart City guidelines that will foresee the main priorities, actions, and goals be achieved in a medium term. The Smart City guidelines will allow Rīga to plan the day-to-day activities in a more systematic manner. Guidelines will be published in 2024.