How SmartCATALONIA Aims to Transform Catalonia into a Smart Region

There is a new internet revolution happening right now, and Catalonia aims to be at the center of it.

• Internet of Information: In the 1990s, developments clustered around using the internet to share information, for example, content and email.
• Internet of People: In 2010 and beyond we have seen a switch to an internet of the people, which has focused on the importance of mobile devices and social media.
• Internet of Things: As the number of connected devices keeps increasing, we are moving to an Internet of Things. The new revolution includes big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cyber-physical systems, wearables, smart robots, drones, mobile, cloud, cyber security, and 3D printing.

It is important to focus our economies, our cities, and our countries down this new path. In fact, not too long ago we saw many cities in the Catalonia territory of Spain sparking up Smart Cities projects. For fear that these separate projects would create isolated Smart Cities, we came up with a plan to unite Catalonia by creating a Smart Region. The smartCATALONIA strategy was approved in October 2014 and was the first authorized Smart Region plan in Europe.

The SmartCATALONIA program identified three main areas to focus on: smart economy, smart government, and smart citizens. We identified framework areas to ensure that projects in the region would be carried out successfully. For example, we invested in electronic infrastructures like data centers, networks, and sensors; we created a platform of services that could be shared among different municipalities, like cloud, big data, open data, and high-performance computing; and we have worked at creating legal framework for electronic communication in order to prevent digital exclusion while ensuring trust, privacy and cyber security.

These initiatives have allowed us to coordinate Smart City projects happening all across Catalonia. They have encouraged public-private partnerships and fostered openness where cities can share their experiences, so mistakes are not repeated and successes can be replicated.

Here are some of the many ventures of the smartCATALONIA Smart Region project.

Smart Cities Development

• Catalonia SuperLab: An urban network of laboratories dedicated to testing and validating smart solutions in real environments.
• smartCATALONIA Observatory: Which gives a comprehensive and updated overview of the projects and initiatives of the Smart Catalan territory.
• Smart City Roadmap: A collection of guidelines to help municipal officials adopt Smart Cities initiatives gradually

Smart Economy

• Center of Excellence in Big Data: A public-private partnership aimed at researching innovations in big data technologies and analyzing data that companies are producing in order to discover value in that data.
• Industrial Forum for the Connected Vehicle and Automated Driving (IFCVAD): A public-private partnership that includes car companies, factories, and telecom companies. The goal is to make Catalonia the best place for this new industry by tackling issues related to production, logistics, and testing.

Smart Grids

• Intelligent Distribution Power Router (IDPR): In the current model, energy is generated, transported, distributed then consumed. The Smart Grid project allows consumers also to generate their own energy, which flows back to the IDPR where it can be redistributed.

Smart Citizen

• Mobile Coverage Project: This initiative will allow us to create a real-time map of coverage quality anywhere in Catalonia. By voluntarily downloading the app, people can become smart citizens who transmit coverage data anonymously wherever they are, thus contributing to the map which can serve all citizens in the Catalonia territory. 

This is a quick glimpse at some of the many projects happening right now to encourage Smart City projects across the area and ultimately to make Catalonia a Smart Region. As a result of these efforts, Catalonia is emerging as “Europe’s Silicon Valley.” Our developments have attracted businesses such as Zurich Insurance Group, Amazon, Computacenter, Nestle, Lenovo, Vodafone, CaixaBank, Oracle, and Nintendo, all of which have set up or expanded technology and data centers in Catalonia within the last year. By following the new internet revolution that is focused on the Internet of Things, Catalonia is creating an attractive ecosystem that will economically boost the region and create better jobs in the future.