3 millions for SMEs and cities with innovative ideas

Synchronicity a project involving an investment of 20 million Euros from the European Commission and 40 partners, including Porto and Ubiwhere, the only Portuguese participants in this project, are now available 3 Million Euros to help SMEs to promote the digital transformation of cities.

Porto, Manchester, Helsinki, Milan, Antwerp, Carouge, Santander and Eindhoven. These were the 8 European cities that came together to take the first step towards the full digital transformation of the urban environment.

Porto, the only Portuguese city involved, started with this project with the mission of expanding services based on the existing technological infrastructure, namely with the implementation of the fiber network, already with 4000 kilometers, or the public Wi-Fi network that in 2017 supported more than one million devices.

It is within this scope that Ubiwhere is also included. The Portuguese SME, based in Aveiro, is the only national technology partner for this project, which has remained close to Porto in the construction of this pilot that now opens the door to more cities and SMEs.

The platform for submitting applications is open on the Synchronicity European Project website. A qualified external jury will evaluate and select between 15 to 25 solutions that will be put into practice from the beginning of 2019.

According to Rui A. Costa, CEO of Ubiwhere, the Portuguese technology partner of this project, which can’t participate on this competition because of its strong involvement, "is widely available to provide clarification and help other SMEs and Portuguese cities to seize this opportunity, in order to create a more innovative country, closer to the future and, essentially, to generate a better quality of life for citizens".