Egain participates in Horizon 2020 project, RESPONSE, to develop energy efficient and sustainable cities.

Funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, RESPONSE is a 60-month project that aims to establish a strategic vision for Smart Cities Energy Transition: Climate-neutral cities by 2050. RESPONSE aims to turn energy sustainability into a doable vision by solving the energy trilemma; security, equity/affordability and environmental sustainability at building, block and district levels in smart cities. The project builds upon intelligent, integrated and interconnected energy systems coupled with demand-oriented city infrastructures, governance models and services that foster energy sustainability.

The overall focus of the project is to create resilient and safe cities, whilst increasing the quality of life and lowering the impacts of climate change.

In RESPONSE, Turku will demonstrate 10 integrated solutions, to be implemented in the Positive Energy District (PED) in the Student Village area. These include various innovative technologies and tools that aim at transforming existing and new building stock, decarbonization of the electricity grid and the district heating and cooling systems, proposing flexibility and storage strategies for optimizing energy flows and reducing the grid stress. Moreover, further methods are tested in order to link existing data and information platforms to enable digitalization of services, integrating also smart e-Mobility to promote the decarbonization of the mobility sector. Last but not least, the applied interdisciplinary engagement and co-creation practices will put citizens and stakeholders at the forefront of shaping Turku’s development as a smart, resilient and safe city. Based on the successful piloting of the solutions, a replication roadmap will be developed for areas of Science Park Itäharju and Runosmäki, as well as the 2050 Bold City Vision for the Smart city of Turku.

Mitra Hajigholi and Jon Åkerström lead Egain's work in the RESPONSE project.[/caption]

Egain Group will contribute with deep knowledge within buildings system connectivity, data analytics and energy use. In RESPONSE, we will primarily develop the IoT and reporting platform and use Artificial Intelligence for cyber security and energy optimization.

"RESPONSE is a really exciting and fun EU project in many ways. It is one of the most disruptive and ambitious climate projects available today. Turku city aims to become climate neutral by 2029, and positive thereafter! In RESPONSE, Egain will work with leading partners in the EU. Over the next 5 years, we will develop several innovative and advanced technical solutions within IOT, advanced data analytics and IT security. But it does not stop there, our solution will be replicated and used further by other cities in the EU where we can both contribute and develop Egain´s AI. It feels good to know that Egain's work will contribute to resilient, sustainable and safe cities that increase people's quality of life. ", comments Mitra Hajigholi, Data scientist and machine learning engineer at Egain and project coordinator for RESPONSE.

The overall consortium of RESPONSE is led by EIFER - European Institute for Energy Research, Germany, technically supported by CERTH - Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece, and comprises of a total of 53 partners.

The local ecosystem is led by the city of Turku and consists of 18 partners. The ecosystem includes several city-affiliated organizations (Turku Energia, Turku City Data, Turku Student Village Foundation, Turku University of Applied Sciences), national research institutions (VTT, University of Turku and Finnish Meteorological Institute) and forerunning innovative technology providers both from Finland (Solar Finland, Oilon, Sähkö-Jokinen, HögforsGST, Elisa, ELCON Solutions, HR-Ikkunat Ruhkala) and abroad (Egain, FerroAmp and SunAmp).

The project commenced on October 1, 2020, and the official kick-off meeting is scheduled to take place on November 3^rd and 4^th.

For more information, please contact:

• Jon Åkerström, CTO, Egain Group, jon.akerstrom@egain.io, +46 768 853 502
• David Goujon, Project Coordinator, EIFER - European Institute for Energy Research, david.goujon@eifer.org
• Tanvir Singh Badwal, SPI - Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação, Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation, tanvirsingh@spi.pt
• Olena Zinchuk, Administrative Site Manager, City of Turku – Project Development Unit, olena.zinchuk@turku.fi
• Mikko Virtanen, Technical Site Manager, VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland, E-mail: mikko.virtanen@vtt.fi

For more information about Egain, please visit www.egain.io