TIM and the National Research Council of Italy (Cnr) have signed a cooperation agreement to develop scientific research activities and joint projects in the field of Urban Intelligence and Smart Cities.
The framework agreement, which lasts for four years and is renewable, was signed by Maria Chiara Carrozza, the President of the National Research Council, and Elio Schiavo, TIM’s Chief Enterprise & Innovative Solutions Officer.
“Accelerating urbanisation and the concentration of the population in cities, together with increasing resource scarcity and the effects of climate change, require smart urban ecosystem management policies”, the President of the National Research Council, Maria Chiara Carrozza announced. “The Cnr’s Urban Intelligence Project aims to equip urban governance with the digital tools required to tackle the challenges it faces, as well as to meet the sustainability goals set in the UN 2030 Agenda: urban policies for access to infrastructure and social services, housing, education, healthcare assistance, recreational activities, mobility and a safe environment. The collaboration with TIM and the opportunity to use the data collected in the TIM Urban Genius platform will enable Cnr to create simulators that can improve efficiency and resilience in the management of urban environments”.
“This agreement is important to us because Smart Cities are central to our strategy. We offer our technology and expertise to local administrations to enable them to design the cities of the future and to achieve important objectives in terms of economic development, cost controls and more efficient policies on the ground. We are proud to collaborate with the Cnr to forge a partnership that pools our strengths in research to collect and process large quantities of data. All of this is thanks to cutting-edge digital platforms and infrastructure, to meet the needs of citizens and businesses”, affirmed Elio Schiavo, TIM’s Chief Enterprise & Innovative Solutions Officer.
One of the objectives of this collaboration will be to identify and develop research programmes, training, technology transfer and other joint initiatives in the Urban Intelligence and Smart Cities sector.
The agreement follows on from a successful collaboration for the recent ‘TIM Smart City Challenge’, a scouting initiative to foster the growth of the Italian Smart City ecosystem. This involved more than 170 start-ups, scale-ups and innovative businesses, who presented solutions to make cities ever smarter, safer and more sustainable, through applications which can be integrated into the urban intelligence platform, TIM Urban Genius.
The programmes and initiatives launched will mainly focus on strengthening the Cnr's Urban Intelligence Virtual Laboratory, through new research synergies with private stakeholders and scientific collaboration in this area, including through joint activities. One area of collaboration will be the ‘Digital Twin Cities project’, which uses integrated digital systems, widespread sensors and predictive analytics to virtually replicate the city and its systems, with the goal of pinpointing a new model of urban planning and management.
Rome, 15 May 2023
