The Flanders Region eGovernment Services (CORVE) kicked off a major new European project – Citadel on The Move – in the City of Ghent on 1 February 2012. Citadel on the Move is co-funded by the European Commission Information Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT-PSP) for Smart Cities. The goal of Citadel on the Move is to demonstrate that it is possible to combine Open Access Data and Mobile Application tools to create ‘smart,’ innovative citizen-generated services that can be used across Europe. Ultimately, Citadel on the Move seeks to advance nothing less than digital materialisation of European integration through the creation of ‘smart’ mobile Services that can be shared and used anywhere.
The project unites all of Europe’s leading local government organizations with Living Lab experts, specialist technology researchers and expert SMEs in a common effort to harness the power of user-driven open innovation systems to develop citizen-generated ‘smart city’ mobile applications that can be potentially used and shared in any European city – large or small. The vision behind Citadel on the Move lies at the heart of the Citadel Statement (December 2010), which aimed to accelerate ‘the uptake of innovative ultrafast Internet based technologies and services in cities based on shared platforms.’ The ‘Citadel Statement’ is a pan-European declaration which was initiated by the Flemish Region in the City of Ghent during Belgian Presidency of the EU and supported by 64 organisations representing more than 200 cities on five continents.