Nine cities. Nine challenges.
Meet the partner cities
These vibrant, dynamic cities may be spread across the globe, but they share common challenges that cities everywhere face, regardless of geographical boundaries. We Imagine together the Citiverse—where cities are comfortable, easy to navigate, inclusive for residents, and sustainable and safe places to live.
Aurora, USA
Aurora, Illinois, the second largest city in the state, pulses with a rich tapestry of history, culture and innovation. Nestled along the scenic Fox River, Aurora offers a blend of historic charm and modern vibrancy. From its diverse community to its thriving arts scene and lush parks, Aurora stands as a beacon of promise and potential, inviting all to experience its dynamic spirit. Known as the ”City of Lights”, Aurora was the first city in the United States to publicly illuminate the entire city with electric lights, demonstrating its long tradition of innovation.
The City of Aurora, Illinois, is committed to enhancing connectivity and sustainability through its ambitious Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform. With a population nearing 200,000 residents and over 1.4 million visitors annually, Aurora is uniquely positioned to lead the way in sustainable transit innovation.
Aurora’s initiative aims to create a zero-carbon MaaS platform that connects key locations such as the Fox Valley Mall, Hollywood Casino, and Downtown Aurora, while leveraging existing ecosystem solutions. The challenge seeks to:
- Reduce Carbon Emissions: Develop a transit platform that significantly cuts emissions, contributing to a cleaner environment.
- Enhance Connectivity: Improve access to major attractions and economic hubs, fostering community engagement and stimulating economic activity.
- Promote Innovation: Utilize cutting-edge technologies like digital twins, IoT, and AI to deliver an efficient and reliable transit experience.
- Encourage Collaboration: Leverage public-private partnerships to minimize resource strain and ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
Aurora invites innovators to design a seamless, integrated transit solution that sets a benchmark for sustainable urban mobility. The platform should incorporate emerging technologies like AR/VR, metaverse integration, and blockchain to create a futuristic user experience.
Genova, Italy
Genova is the capital of Liguria, one of Italy’s 20 regions, and the sixth largest city in Italy. In 2023, 558,745 people lived within the municipality, 813,626 in the extended metropolitan area.
The area of Genova has been inhabited since the fourth millennium BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city’s rich cultural history in art, music and cuisine allowed it to become the European Capital of Culture.
The City of Genova, Italy, is committed to ensuring that the benefits of digitalisation are accessible to all, especially its most vulnerable citizens. With an aging population and diverse socio-economic challenges, the city recognises that digital advancements can exacerbate existing inequalities if not implemented inclusively.
Genova’s Total Inclusion Challenge aims to:
- Bridge the Digital Divide: Develop solutions that support digitally excluded groups, including the elderly, disabled, and low-income families.
- Enhance Accessibility: Create technologies that make public services, arts, and cultural experiences accessible to all, regardless of physical or cognitive ability.
- Support Vulnerable Populations: Implement systems to safeguard vulnerable citizens during extreme weather events or natural disasters.
By prioritizing human-centric design and inclusivity, Genova invites innovators to develop social and technical solutions that use the Citiverse as a vehicle for empowerment and equality, ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age.
Istanbul, Turkey
Situated on two continents, Istanbul has a varied topography with hills, straits and coastlines. With a population of over 15 million, the city faces transport challenges, including heavy traffic and high levels of air and noise pollution. Istanbul is also vulnerable to earthquakes. To address these issues, the city is using smart technologies to improve urban management, reduce pollution and create a more sustainable, resilient environment for its residents.
Istanbul faces challenges with fast urban growth, a large population, and complicated transportation. Its varied geography and risk of earthquakes require practical solutions. The city also struggles with air and noise pollution due to heavy traffic and industrial activity. Using smart technologies to manage the city sustainably is essential. It is also important to upgrade infrastructure to meet the growing demands of the population. Addressing pollution, particularly air and noise pollution caused by traffic and industry, is a priority for the city’s health and environment. Additionally, preparing for natural disasters, especially earthquakes, is crucial to protect residents and ensure the city’s resilience in the face of emergencies. Balancing development with environmental and social needs is essential for long-term sustainability and a better quality of life.
Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain
Just 15 minutes from Madrid capital, Las Rozas is a city of more than 100.000 residents and a key economic player in Madrid region. With over 10,500 companies, Las Rozas is also the second city in Madrid with the highest number of tech startups. Las Rozas has a 10-year strategy to become a pioneer in the use of technology and innovation to improve citizen services and the quality of life, and to connect and strengthen its business and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Las Rozas Innova is the public innovation company in the city and the tool to make this strategy possible.
Las Rozas, Spain, seeks to strengthen its emergency response capacity to ensure the safety and well-being of all its citizens. From extreme weather events to incidents in the urban environment, the city needs innovative solutions that improve prevention, detection, and crisis management in real-time. The challenge aims to:
- Optimize emergency response.
- Leverage data and artificial intelligence.
- Promote citizen participation.
Las Rozas invites innovators, startups, and experts in technology and security to propose solutions that enhance the city’s reaction capacity, ensuring efficient management and a safer, more prepared community in the face of any emergency.
London’s Thames Freeport, UK
Thames Freeport is an economic zone located in the Thames Estuary, United Kingdom. Thames Freeport is strategically positioned along the River Thames in London. It offers easy access to Europe’s largest consumer market of 18 million people within 120 km and connects to over 130 ports in over 65 international markets. Thames Freeport vision is to create a sustainable, future-focused community that integrates cutting edge technologies, green energy, and world-class infrastructure to foster economic growth and environmental leadership.
Public services must move to a more preventative model of service delivery in order to deliver better outcomes for citizens. This is a significant challenging with the more vulnerable in society who might not be known to local services, these citizens can include:
- People who provide unpaid care for family members or friends.
- People who are socially isolated.
- Migrant communities with different expectations of social support and healthcare.
- Residents with English as a second language, low literacy or are digitally excluded.
- People who are becoming increasingly frail.
How can the citiverse make vulnerable residents more visible to organisations that can provide support? This could be about:
- How can support organisations quickly identify people that need help?
- How can we help people to understand the support on offer, and to access it if they want?
- How can we bring in the community to look out for each other and help each other access support?
Cracking this issue would lead to significant benefits to citizens, more digital public services, a preventative approach to a range of social issues, and financial savings to the state.
Phoenix, USA
Phoenix offers a pro-business climate and gateway to global markets, with over 1,400 international firms from 41 countries calling Phoenix home. The city provides sustainable access to skilled talent and robust industries, empowering companies to optimize operations, seize opportunities, and drive strategic growth in a cost-effective business hub. Phoenix is ranked first in the nation for manufacturing growth and is leading the way in emerging opportunities, improving productivity, and creating conditions for constant growth through a simple process.
Concept: Advance the existing digital twin created by city partner organizations (Downtown Phoenix Inc. and Arizona State University), or develop a new twin through another technology platform, to identify optimal, digital shaded pathways (existing shade and optimal locations for future shade –connecting “cool corridors”) throughout the city that will come to life through implementation in the physical world – connecting to public transportation, bicycle pathways, rideshares, canal systems, etc.
Additional: Utilizing data sets, existing real-time data (through partners like google), sensor technologies in the streetscape, etc., the digital twin will empower City leadership teams to identify current shade and determine the optimal areas for additional shade (manufactured and natural), where people are biking, walking, using public transportation and ridesharing apps, as well how best to position shade installations for optimal outcomes, and/or mechanical shade to move with the sun. The project will connect “cool corridors” throughout the city, which include access to chilled water and bicycle service hubs.
User Experience: Residents and visitors will have access to a virtual map, with directional options (voice, digital maps, prompts, etc.), with accessibility features, to guide them through shaded areas of the city and access to amenities including chilled water.
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Rotterdam is a young, dynamic world city that keeps reinventing itself at speed. Our city is unconventional for the Netherlands, internationally renowned for our passion for innovation and unpolished charm. Whether it is our ever-changing skyline full of bold architecture, our port that is regarded as the smartest in the world or the ‘can do’ mentality of the Rotterdam people in all their diversity: Rotterdam is an entrepreneurial city with a distinct character, constantly evolving and always looking forward. A city of frontrunners with the courage and will to drive change.
The City of Rotterdam, Netherlands, is rapidly advancing in its Citiverse strategy, which is powered by a high-end digital twin and the Open Urban Data Platform (OUP). These tools are at the heart of the city’s efforts to address one of its most pressing issues: water management and resilience.
Given that much of the Netherlands lies below sea level, flooding poses a significant risk to citizens, businesses, and infrastructure—including Europe’s largest port. Rotterdam’s Water & Resilience Challenge aims to leverage the Citiverse to:
- Predict: Use advanced data modelling to forecast flooding scenarios.
- Mitigate: Develop solutions that proactively reduce flooding impacts.
- Respond: Enhance response capabilities for faster, more effective action during crises.
This challenge extends beyond flooding to address broader water, resilience, and safety issues. Rotterdam invites innovators worldwide to propose creative solutions that integrate with the city’s digital twin and OUP, ensuring the safety and well-being of its citizens while setting a benchmark for urban resilience.
Tampere, Finland
Known as Finland’s most attractive city, Tampere is celebrated for its relaxed yet bold spirit, seamlessly blending vibrant city life with the tranquility of nature. Tampere is a home to around 250 000 people, making it the third largest city in Finland and the sixth largest in the Nordics. Tampere is internationally known as a city of technology, often going in the forefront of development. The hometown of innovations has made many world-class breakthroughs and has developed products and services that improve the quality of life of ordinary people.
Imagine the Citiverse Challenge: Innovative data-driven solutions for urban safety and business vitality
Urban security is more important than ever. As cities grow and evolve, ensuring safety while fostering a thriving business environment is a pressing challenge. With rapid technological advancements and increasing expectations from residents and businesses, cities must take a proactive, data-driven approach to safety and security. Our vision is to enable the world’s safest city—a place where people and businesses can flourish without concerns about security.
We are looking for solutions that enhance overall urban security and strengthen business vitality by integrating multiple data sources, leveraging advanced analytics and AI methods, and actively engaging both residents and businesses.
To improve safety and the business environment, we seek solutions that:
- Collect and analyze data from various sources, such as sensors, pedestrian and traffic flows, crime statistics, and other urban environment metrics.
- Detect anomalies and anticipate risks, such as potential safety threats, disruptions, or patterns related to crime and public disturbances.
- Actively engage local businesses and residents to ensure the solutions provide value to different user groups and support sustainable urban development.
The solutions should combine technological innovation with community participation, offering a comprehensive, data-driven, and community-inclusive approach to making the city safer, more attractive, and economically vibrant. We are looking for forward-thinking partners whose solutions can enhance security and bring tangible value to the urban environment.
Valencia, Spain
Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, combines rich history with modern innovation. Renowned for its stunning architecture, vibrant culture and Mediterranean lifestyle, it is a hub for technology, entrepreneurship and sustainability. With top universities, dynamic public spaces and global connectivity, Valencia is a thriving, future-ready city.
Playgrounds need to evolve to address urban challenges such as digital transformation, sustainability, inclusion and community engagement. Traditional playgrounds face challenges such as static design, environmental impact, inaccessibility, lack of connectivity, and limited community participation. Future playgrounds should be flexible, sustainable and digitally integrated, with modular spaces, smart technology and inclusive design. By fostering co-creation and innovation, these playgrounds must enhance the play experience and contribute to resilient, connected communities.
Read the full Challenges
Want to know more about the city challenges and give your solution to them? Visit the application page and dive in to the IMAGINE the Citiverse challenges 2025