ATELIER is an citizen driven smart cities project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 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: Riga (Latvia), Bratislava (Slovak Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Copenhagen (Denmark), Krakow (Poland) and Matosinhos (Portugal).
From participation in the ATELIER project, Riga city aims to:
- acquire new knowledge, experience, skills and innovative approaches for the development of PEDs – a concept that is new for Riga.
- develop a “Bold City Vision 2050” for guiding the city’s energy transition challenges, and to integrate the vision in urban planning processes at all levels, among other, to update city’s SEAP-2020 to SECAP-2030.
- develop new funding opportunities – incentives and business models aimed to finance sustainable development in the city, smart and energy efficient retrofitting of residential and tertiary buildings.
- create a community of local stakeholders willing to engage in smart transformation processes.
- raise awareness amongst the local population on sustainability issues and smart city concepts.