FOMENTO DE SAN SEBASTIAN SA

Their core work

Fomento de San Sebastián is the local economic development agency for the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Country, Spain. They act as a bridge between municipal policy and EU innovation projects, bringing urban planning expertise, citizen engagement capacity, and local infrastructure to consortia tackling energy efficiency, urban resilience, food systems, and smart city transformation. Their practical value lies in providing a real-world urban testbed — a mid-sized European city with strong institutional support — where project results can be piloted, demonstrated, and validated with actual citizens and city services.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2018), FSS focused on urban resilience frameworks, energy-efficient building retrofitting, and district-level energy planning — essentially the physical and institutional infrastructure of a smart city. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted markedly toward social dimensions: social innovation auditing for SMEs and urban food system transformation through living labs and citizen engagement. This trajectory shows a clear move from hard infrastructure (energy, buildings, resilience tools) toward people-centered urban innovation (food systems, social innovation, community participation).

FSS is evolving from a technical smart-city partner into a living lab operator focused on food, social innovation, and citizen-driven urban transformation — expect future work at the intersection of urban policy and community engagement.

How they like to work

FSS never coordinates — they join as a participant or third party, contributing their city as a demonstration site and their institutional connections as an implementation enabler. With 119 unique partners across 21 countries, they operate in large consortia (typical for smart city Innovation Actions) rather than small focused teams. This pattern means they are easy to work with as a deployment partner but should not be expected to lead technical development or scientific research.

FSS has collaborated with 119 unique partners across 21 countries, reflecting broad European reach built primarily through large smart city and urban innovation consortia. Their network is strongest in Western and Southern Europe, anchored in the Basque Country's well-connected innovation ecosystem.

What sets them apart

FSS offers something many consortia need but struggle to find: a committed municipal development agency that can open doors to city services, urban infrastructure, and citizen communities for real-world piloting. Unlike universities or private companies, they carry institutional legitimacy and long-term local continuity — results demonstrated in San Sebastián stay embedded in city policy. Their Basque Country location also provides access to one of Spain's most innovation-active regional ecosystems.

Highlights from their portfolio

• REPLICATE
  By far their largest project (EUR 3.2M of their EUR 4.3M total), a flagship smart city demonstration project positioning San Sebastián as a European replication site for ICT platforms and electric mobility.
• FUSILLI
  Their most recent and second-largest project (EUR 887K), marking a strategic pivot into urban food systems and living lab methodology — a growing EU funding priority.
• OptEEmAL
  Technically specific project on district-level energy refurbishment combining LCA, data modeling, and evolutionary computing — shows FSS can contribute to technically demanding energy work.