City-level economic development agency specialising in smart city governance, RRI frameworks, and urban innovation co-creation in Catalonia.
PES is the economic development agency of Sabadell, a mid-sized industrial city in Catalonia, Spain. Their real-world work is about driving urban innovation from the inside: facilitating smart city transitions, coordinating low-energy district pilots, and building the governance capacity that allows a city administration to pursue responsible innovation alongside its business community. In the Triangulum project, Sabadell served as a "follower city" learning from European lighthouse cities — and PES was the local engine making that happen. In RRI-LEADERS, they shifted toward building the leadership and governance tools that territories need to make responsible innovation stick, covering anticipation, inclusiveness, reflexivity, and responsiveness as a structured framework.
PES served as third party in Triangulum (2015–2020), one of the flagship EU smart city projects, representing Sabadell as a follower city replicating low-energy district innovations from Hamburg, Manchester, and Stavanger.
As a paid participant in RRI-LEADERS (2021–2023), PES worked directly on the AIRR dimensions framework — Anticipation, Inclusiveness, Reflexivity, and Responsiveness — applied at the territorial level.
Co-creation appears in both projects, suggesting it is not a buzzword for PES but a recurring method — citizen integration was a named deliverable in Triangulum and a governance pillar in RRI-LEADERS.
PES's organisational mandate — promoting the Sabadell local economy — means their EU project work is the research arm of ongoing business-public coordination, not a standalone research function.
Between 2015 and 2020, PES was primarily engaged in the practical side of urban energy transitions — demonstrating, disseminating, and replicating what smart and low-energy districts look like on the ground, with citizen integration as a supporting method. By 2021–2023, the focus had moved decisively from implementation to governance: the keywords shift from "smart city" and "low energy districts" to "RRI leadership," "territorial governance," and the AIRR framework, suggesting PES has built enough delivery experience to now lead on how cities should govern innovation — not just run pilots. This is a credible maturation path for a city-linked agency: you demonstrate first, then you teach others how to lead.
PES is moving from being a city-level implementer of EU smart city agendas toward a role as a governance capacity builder — organisations looking for a partner to design responsible innovation frameworks for mid-sized cities or industrial territories should watch this trajectory.
PES does not lead projects — in two H2020 participations they have taken a third-party role and a participant role, never coordinator. They appear to join large, well-structured consortia where their value is territorial: they bring Sabadell as a test bed, a replication site, or a governance case study rather than providing technical research outputs. Working with them means working with a city-embedded actor who can open doors to local government, industry associations, and citizen groups in Catalonia — but they will expect the consortium to provide the scientific and technical backbone.
Across just two projects, PES has accumulated 35 unique consortium partners across 10 countries — a notably broad network for a small city-level agency, largely inherited from Triangulum's massive multi-city consortium. Their network spans Northern and Southern Europe, giving them indirect ties to lighthouse smart city actors in Hamburg and Manchester.
PES occupies a rare niche: a city-level economic development body with hands-on experience in both smart city implementation (as a Triangulum follower city) and RRI governance frameworks. Most city agencies in EU projects are passive dissemination partners — PES has built genuine methodological depth around how territories govern responsible innovation, which is increasingly required in Horizon Europe missions and regional innovation strategies. For a consortium that needs a credible Southern European mid-size city with governance experience and local industry connections, PES is a stronger choice than a generic regional authority.
