AYUNTAMIENTO DE VALENCIA

Their core work

Valencia City Council serves as a large-scale urban living lab for testing security, climate resilience, and smart city solutions in a real metropolitan environment of over 800,000 inhabitants. They provide municipal infrastructure, citizen engagement channels, and policy-making authority that allow EU research projects to pilot and validate technologies in actual city operations. Their core contribution is bridging the gap between research prototypes and real-world urban deployment — from first responder tools and public safety systems to nature-based climate adaptation and energy transition roadmaps. They bring the end-user perspective of a major European city government to R&D consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2015–2018, Valencia's H2020 portfolio centred on physical security tools — forensic sensors (FORENSOR), video surveillance ethics, social media for public safety (MEDIA4SEC), and disaster risk management (CARISMAND) — alongside early smart city and climate resilience work (GROW GREEN, MAtchUP). From 2019 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward AI-powered security (machine learning, deep learning, AR, digital twins), cyber-domain threats (cybercrime, hybrid threats, pandemic management), and sustainable urban mobility and energy transition. The progression shows a city government evolving from passive test-site for physical security tools to an active urban laboratory for AI-driven public safety and climate-smart city planning.

Valencia is increasingly positioned at the intersection of AI/ML-powered public safety and climate-resilient urban policy, making them a strong partner for projects that need a major European city to pilot integrated smart-and-safe city solutions.

How they like to work

Valencia overwhelmingly participates as a partner (19 of 20 projects) rather than leading consortia, which is typical for city governments that contribute pilot sites and end-user validation rather than research capacity. With 355 unique partners across 38 countries, they operate as a well-connected hub — rarely repeating the same consortium, instead linking into diverse European networks. This makes them easy to approach: they are experienced consortium members accustomed to working with varied academic and industrial partners, and they bring genuine municipal authority to deploy and test results at city scale.

An exceptionally broad European network with 355 unique partners spanning 38 countries, reflecting Valencia's role as a go-to pilot city that different consortia recruit for real-world urban testing. Their partnerships span security agencies, universities, SMEs, and other city governments across nearly all EU member states.

What sets them apart

Valencia is one of relatively few large Southern European cities with deep, sustained H2020 experience across both security AND sustainability domains — most city governments specialise in one or the other. Their dual track of AI-enhanced public safety and green urban transformation means they can host pilots that require both secure and climate-resilient city infrastructure. Having coordinated MAtchUP as a lighthouse city, they have proven capacity to lead large-scale urban demonstration projects, not just participate in them.

Highlights from their portfolio

• MAtchUP
  Valencia's only coordinator role and largest grant (EUR 1.38M) — a flagship lighthouse smart city project demonstrating large-scale urban transformation and replication strategies.
• GROW GREEN
  Second-largest funding (EUR 897K) and a multi-year nature-based solutions project making Valencia a reference city for green and blue infrastructure against climate change.
• DARLENE
  Combines augmented reality, 5G, deep learning, and computer vision for law enforcement — represents Valencia's most technology-intensive security pilot.