S+T+ARTS in the City: supporting the emergence of innovative solutions for the cities
S+T+ARTS in the City is a new S+T+ARTS residencies project that aims at enhancing art-driven innovation at local level and human-centered technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, new digital media, smart cities, high performance computing, data science, or biotechnologies, that will be able to put in the market products and services that have a positive ecological, societal, and ethical impact.
By combining arts and creativity with science and tech for good, S+T+ARTS in the City will contribute to the emergence of ecologically conscious technology uses that answer the current challenges that regions are facing, in sectors such as green manufacturing, sustainable urban development, security, recyclable textiles, digital literacy, and more.
Globalisation, demographic change, climate change, secure, sustainable and competitive energy, and social polarisation, in addition to the economic and financial crisis, are the major challenges confronting Europe today, challenges of a medium and long-term perspective.
In today’s interconnected and globalised world, multilateral relations are no longer exclusively built on interstate dynamics. Faced with the concomitant forces of globalisation and localisation, many states are either too small or too big to adequately respond to the growing number of global challenges that are now emerging. This is one of the main driving forces for states to build regional integration schemes.
The Regional S+T+ARTS Centres (RSC) established all over Europe since 2018 are giving an answer to these global challenges, based on the belief that the creativity of artists stimulates innovation in the digital industry and sustainable progress in our society at large. RSC provide funding for cultural institutions, innovative companies, foundations, universities and research institutions that co-develop digital based projects for a more sustainable future. We also keep in mind that regional ecosystems are much closer to the people than the States, thus constitute a privileged space for social and human-centred innovation.
With this project, six RSC (Brussels Region (BE), Upper Austria (AT), Lombardy (IT), Catalonia (ES), Central Slovenia (SI) and North of Portugal (PT)) embark on a new journey, with the ambition of sustaining the S+T+ARTS mindset at regional level, but also to lead it further, with actions driven by the aim of contributing to the expected impact of the Cohesion Policy determined by the EU for 2021-2027, and focusing on answering the priorities determined by the regions involved.
S+T+ARTS in the City will align with these regional priorities and provide solutions, through six main lines of actions:
+ The promotion of eleven regional challenge-based S+T+ARTS residencies;
+ The exploration of the business potential of the outcomes of the residencies;
+ The development of the links of S+T+ARTS with academia;
+ The integration of S+T+ARTS in the institutional processes of programming of the European funds;
+ The strengthening of regional ecosystems of stakeholders that participate in S+T+ARTS;
+ The organisation of public events in the six regions represented.
Duration: April 2023 – November 2024
Consortium: GLUON (BE) (Coordinator), Ars Electronica (AT), Hac Te (ES), INOVA+ (PT), Kersnikova (SI), MEET | Digital Culture Center (IT)
Management Contact Person: Aurélie Delater
S+T+ARTS in the City is funded by the European Union under grant agreement LC-01984766 under the STARTS – Science, Technology and Arts initiative of DG CNECT. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or DG CNECT. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
