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DataCity Open Innovation Programme for Urban Climate Solutions

Solution Overview

DataCity is an open innovation programme that brings together city government, corporations, startups, and technical partners to develop data-driven solutions for urban climate challenges through a structured nine-month collaborative process.[3] Created in 2015 as a spin-off from Paris-based accelerator NUMA, this initiative seeks to address urban challenges through open innovation, with a focus evolving from innovation for innovation's sake to solving real critical issues at scale.[3][6] Through this approach, the City of Paris is involving its partners in the development of new ways to use data in response to climate change-related challenges.[2][8]

Technical Components

The programme is based on two core beliefs: data is key to identify challenges, design solutions and ensure scalability, and change can only happen through a multi-actor co-design approach.[5] The initiative draws on expertise and datasets provided by corporate partners, with advice from DataCity experts, enabling startups to test and co-develop concrete solutions to build more sustainable, inclusive and livable cities.[5] The corporate and city work closely together to define the challenge and which datasets will be opened up, then an open innovation call is put out to startups through the NUMA network to find suitable projects which can then move to a testing phase.[3] The City of Paris became one of the first cities to introduce an open data policy in 2010, making all structured data accessible by open license to promote their reuse and generate new applications.[3]

Implementation Details

Managed by a special team within NUMA, the partners work together throughout a nine-month programme to define urban challenges and develop solutions using data.[3] As part of the agreement with NUMA, approximately 20 percent of Jean-Philippe Clément's time as Chief Data Officer of the City of Paris is spent working with DataCity.[3] Built into the programme is a mandatory amount of time that all three parties—the city, corporate and startup—must provide, because if there is no engagement, nothing would happen.[3] The initiative enables Paris to experiment in small sections of the city without having to make a large purchase, as it is a co-production and is not something the city pays the startup to do.[3] The second edition, which launched on 22 November, aimed to select 9 startups to meet 11 challenges and mobilise the expertise and data of nine key industry partners: Bouygues Energies & Services, EDF, Cisco, Nexity, La Poste, RATP Dev, Setec, SFR, and Suez.[9] The third edition 'Demo Day' was held in Paris City hall on 14 June 2018, where fourteen data solutions developed over nine months of collaboration between startups, corporate partners and the City of Paris were presented, demonstrating solutions covering mobility, energy, the environment, and quality of life.[6]

Benefits and Impacts

The programme helped save up to 10 percent on the city's annual street lighting electricity bill and cut greenhouse gas emissions, by analysing data on street usage to identify off-peak times where the lights can be dimmed.[1] The first edition of DataCity produced three successful offers.[9] The first edition in 2015 included challenges for on-demand buses in the city of Paris using crowdsourcing and simulation technologies, as well as solutions to reduce public energy consumption.[4] In the second round of challenges, the City of Paris specified it wanted solutions to help it achieve its target to reduce energy consumption in its buildings by 10 percent by 2020 through behavioural action, as outlined in the Paris Climate Plan.[3] More than 500 urban projects have been rolled out since 2010 by Paris Region's government, Paris&CO's Urban Lab, Numa's DataCity Lab and others, all supportive of sustainable projects within Paris Region.[7]

Climate Adaptation Relevance

The City of Paris is mobilising its innovation ecosystem to find new responses to climate issues, with numerous programmes being launched each month in Paris to speed up the development of innovative solutions that can contribute to the energy and ecological transition.[2] The City is supporting several initiatives such as the Paris&Co sustainable cities incubator platform, the urban experiments being conducted by Urban Lab, and the DataCity programme on data-related solutions.[2]

Business Analysis

Building on the success of the program in Paris and Casablanca, DataCity expanded internationally in fall 2017 through a partnership between NUMA and C40 Cities—a network of 91 of the world's greatest cities committed to tackling climate change.[5][4] The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group partnered with tech firm NUMA to launch DataCity C40 in cities around the world.[1] Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40, stated that DataCity was conceived in Paris and every year the project allows the city to move faster on key issues for Paris and other cities around the world.[1] Mark Watts, C40 Executive Director, stated that any innovations generated through DataCity and implemented in one C40 city could ultimately benefit up to 90 other cities across the network and beyond.[1][8] Emmanuel Léger, Managing Director of DataCity, stated that his role and that of DataCity evolved from developing ideas with startups to one of scaling solutions in one city and then replicating them in another.[6]

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