Programme presentation

This training programme is a collaborative effort between  Eurocities and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center  (BSC) designed to enhance the capabilities of city officials in the field of Urban Digital Twins (UDTs). The in-person training will take place in Barcelona on 7-8 November 2024, with participants from 15 cities, each with two representatives: one technical specialist, and one policymaker-like profile.

The programme is aimed at four main learning objectives:

• Gaining a solid foundation in the concepts, potential, and applications of digital twins for urban decision-making.
• Understand the technical aspects of UDTs, including data infrastructure, integration, and legal considerations such as GDPR compliance and procurement.
• Enhance the ability to use UDT insights for evidence-based urban planning and decision-making.
• Applying the above knowledge into each city’s local context, challenges and needs.

The programme aims to provide a hands-on, practical approach to understanding and implementing UDTs through the development of a city-specific Action Plan, and the production of a final Implementation Guide that will be publicly available.

Each city will develop an Action Plan that addresses their specific needs and challenges related to digital twins. The Action Plan will be a dynamic document, evolving through the programme to include learnings and inputs from trainers and peers. It will be adaptable to each city’s level of UDT development, and will encompass all elements of the UDT cycle – from problem identification to data strategy, and integration into the decision-making process. A template for the Action Plan will be provided at the outset and refined throughout the programme.

An Implementation Guide will be developed by co-organisers as a key output of the programme. It will compile collective learnings and experiences from participants. This guide will serve as a resource for any city looking to start or improve their digital twin initiatives, contributing to extending the programme’s impact beyond the immediate cohort of participants.

2024 participating cities

For the 2024 edition of the training programme, participating cities are: Arezzo, Barcelona, Bilbao, Brno, Brussels, Budapest, Kadikoy, Leuven, Lille Métropole, Mariupol, Oslo, Riga, Rome, Tampere, and Turku.