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Home›Research Projects›DYNACITY - HORIZON-MISS-2025-04 #101270878

DYNACITY - HORIZON-MISS-2025-04 #101270878

Ongoing
Project lead: University of Patras (Panepistimio Patron), Greece
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Background

Cities need to make increasingly complex decisions across mobility, energy, water, infrastructure, and climate adaptation. At the same time, urban planning must become more data-driven without losing the involvement and trust of the people who live there.

DynaCITY addresses this challenge by developing an AI-powered, participatory Digital Twin framework for sustainable and climate-neutral cities. The project combines real-time urban data, advanced simulation, AI, and interactive tools to help cities explore future scenarios, evaluate interventions, and involve citizens directly in the planning process.

The framework will be demonstrated in five urban pilots (Heidelberg, Lund, Menton, Funchal and Beirut), covering different planning challenges and urban environments.

Lund and Veberöd pilot

In Sweden, DYNACITY connects Veberöd and Lund into what the project calls a village-to-city chain. Veberöd works as an incubation hub where IoT sensors and edge AI can be tested quickly across mobility, energy and climate adaptation; Lund then scales the methods that hold up, using AI-supported scenario modelling for larger infrastructure planning.

Sensative works here together with Lunds kommun, Byutveckling AB and Smarta Byar, alongside the project’s other European partners. The Swedish pilot puts citizens in the role of co-creators rather than consultees: through a co-created web and mobile application, residents reach local data dashboards, explore planning scenarios, submit ideas and incident reports, and get answers back from the municipality.

As Jan Malmgren of Smarta Byar puts it, citizen engagement does not start with technology, but with everyday life. That is why the pilot begins in a village small enough that the everyday is visible.

From IoT data to Digital Twins

A central challenge for useful Digital Twins is connecting information from many different physical and digital systems. DynaCITY brings together data ranging from infrastructure and environmental sensors to mobility and other real-time urban data streams.

For Sensative, the project provides an opportunity to demonstrate how interoperable IoT infrastructure and real-world data can become part of a larger Digital Twin ecosystem, connecting sensors and local experimentation with AI models, urban planning tools, and citizen-facing services.

The goal is not simply to create a digital representation of a city, but to make Digital Twins practical tools for understanding alternatives, testing ideas before implementation, and supporting better-informed and more inclusive decisions.

A European framework for smarter urban planning

DynaCITY will develop three core technology modules: XModel for predictive scenario analysis, XDesign for collaborative urban design, and XEngage for citizen and stakeholder participation.

The resulting platform is designed to be modular, interoperable, privacy-compliant, and compatible with European initiatives including the EU Local Digital Twin Toolbox, CitiVERSE-EDIC, and Common European Data Spaces.

By connecting AI, Digital Twins, IoT, and citizen participation, DynaCITY aims to turn urban data into practical tools for building more resilient, inclusive, and climate-neutral cities.

Sustainable CitiesAIDigital TwinsParticipatory Design
Other participants (22)
  • TALLINNA TEHNIKAÜLIKOOL
  • JOANNEUM RESEARCH FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MBH
  • AB INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT LTD
  • UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
  • RAISING THE FLOOR-INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
  • ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS
  • LIBELIUM LAB SL
  • superwien urbanism ZT GmbH
  • DIGITALTWIN TECHNOLOGY GMBH
  • STADT HEIDELBERG
  • Digital-Agentur Heidelberg GmbH
  • American University of Beirut
  • Communauté d’Agglomération de la Riviera Française
  • EGM
  • LUNDS KOMMUN
  • SENSATIVE AB
  • FBL INNOVATION EKONOMISK FORENING
  • Byutveckling AB
  • Câmara Municipal do Funchal
  • Logimade Lda
  • ARDITI - AGENCIA REGIONAL PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO DA INVESTIGACAO, TECNOLOGIA E INOVACAO, ASSOCIACAO
  • TIMELEX
Funded by
EU grant agreement 101270878 (CORDIS) (opens in a new tab)

Research enquiries

cto@sensative.com