Research 

'THE REAL GOAL WAS BUILDING A COMMUNITY'

‘The main objective of the research project SMART-ER was to create a new ecosystem for research and innovation at ECIU,’ says Xavier Gabarrell (Autonomous University of Barcelona). The Scientific Director of SMART-ER discusses the project’s results, the ‘enthusiastic collaboration’ of all partners and the importance of citizen science.

Text: Michaela Nesvarova
Photo: Autonomous University of Barcelona

What was the main idea behind SMART-ER?

‘The focus of the project was on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11): ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. Preparing cities for future challenges was the overarching theme, but the real goal was building a community. We wanted to engage not only researchers from the various universities, but also stakeholders related to the universities. These included public administration, small local companies, spin-offs, NGO’s and more. We wanted to bring them all together and create one ECIU ecosystem.’

Was there any particular reason to focus on cities?

‘It’s a topic where we can apply knowledge from all the member universities. However, it was just a pilot which we can now apply to other topics and fields.’

The project is now officially finished. What were its main outcomes?

‘One of our main achievements was community building and organizing a conference in Barcelona. It was not a regular research conference; it joined together researchers and stakeholders from many different fields and countries and brought together the entire ECIU community. Unlike at other conferences, we didn’t define the topics of research. Our call was open, as long as it involved a collaboration between researchers and stakeholders. It was a conference of the future.’

What were some of the topics and projects presented at the conference?

‘There were several citizen science pilots. One of them was the BiciZen mobile application, which aims to make city regions more bikeable. The platform allows users to share their experiences and data about cycling. For example, people can share info about bicycle parking, theft, safety, cycling paths and so on. This app now has thousands of users, which shows that you can create a high societal impact with a relatively low investment.

Another example was CARE - Citizen Arenas for Improved Environmental Quality & Resource use in SMART-ER Cities. The objective of CARE is to raise citizens’ awareness about environmental challenges and alternative resource management options related to water, biodiversity, waste, air, climate and energy. It creates citizen arenas - open collaborative forum bringing together citizens and researchers, enabling co-creation of scientific questions related to air and water quality or energy and waste resources.’ 

Were all the projects focused on citizen science?

‘Citizen science was one of the main requirements from the beginning. We are changing the way we want to conduct research and innovation. We don’t start with a scientific hypothesis; we ask the people what they need. A societal challenge should always be the starting point of our work – that is at the core of our vision and mission.’

How do you look back on the project?

‘Our major achievement was the impact we had in terms of pushing the internal engagement and stakeholder participation. We acted as a bridge to create networks. People who connected through SMART-ER applied for many other European calls and started other projects together. In this regard, we were extremely successful. Every 100.000 euros we invested eventually led to millions of euros from EU funding. That is a good investment and comes with a lot of benefits for the partner universities.’