smarticipate · Project

Digital Platform That Lets Cities Collect and Use Citizen Input for Urban Planning

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Imagine if every resident in your city could sketch out ideas for their neighborhood — a new park, a bike lane, a building renovation — and the city could instantly see what impact those ideas would have on traffic, green space, or budgets. That's what smarticipate built: an online platform where citizens propose changes and get automatic feedback on whether their ideas are feasible. It was tested with real residents in Hamburg, Rome, and London, turning public data into a two-way conversation between governments and the people they serve.

By the numbers

Pilot cities tested (Hamburg, Rome, London)

Consortium partners

Countries represented in consortium

SMEs in consortium

Total project deliverables

Demo front-end prototypes delivered

The business problem

What needed solving

Cities spend enormous time and money on public consultations that produce low engagement and vague feedback. Residents feel unheard, planning decisions get delayed by opposition, and governments lack efficient tools to process citizen input into actionable insights. The gap between what citizens want and what city planners deliver creates costly project delays and erodes public trust.

The solution

What was built

A digital citizen dialogue platform with two core components: an interactive impact assessment model that lets users modify urban planning objects and see calculated effects, and a web-based interaction tool for structured community engagement. Final functional front-end prototypes were delivered with full back-end integration, tested across 3 European pilot cities.

Audience

Who needs this

City governments and smart city offices looking to digitize citizen engagementGovTech companies building civic participation or e-government platformsUrban planning consultancies that need structured community feedback toolsProperty developers seeking community buy-in before major projectsNGOs and civic organizations focused on democratic participation and transparency

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Municipal Government & Smart Cities

enterprise

Target: City administration or smart city department

If you are a city government struggling with low citizen engagement in urban planning — this project developed a tested digital dialogue platform that lets residents propose neighborhood ideas and instantly see their impact. Piloted in 3 European cities (Hamburg, Rome, London), it reduces the burden on government staff through co-production of planning tasks and increases transparency in decision-making.

GovTech & Civic Software

SME

Target: Software company building civic engagement or e-government tools

If you are a GovTech company looking to add impact assessment features to your civic platform — this project created open, modular front-end and back-end components for structured citizen interaction. With 11 consortium partners across 5 countries contributing to the architecture, the platform was designed for transferability to any European city.

Urban Development & Real Estate

mid-size

Target: Property developer or urban planning consultancy

If you are a developer or planning firm that needs community buy-in before breaking ground — this project built an interactive model where proposed changes can be visualized and their impacts calculated automatically. Tested across 3 pilot cities, it provides a structured way to gather and respond to resident feedback before costly planning decisions are made.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to deploy this platform in our city?

The project data does not include specific licensing or deployment costs. Since the platform was designed to be transferable and sustainable with a business model, pricing would need to be discussed directly with the consortium, led by Fraunhofer. The platform uses open public data, which could reduce data acquisition costs.

Can this scale beyond the 3 pilot cities?

Yes — the project was explicitly designed so that the 3 pilot demonstrations in Hamburg, Rome, and London are transferable to all cities throughout Europe. The platform architecture includes generic components (impact assessment model and web-server interaction tool) built for reuse across different city contexts.

Who owns the IP and how is it licensed?

The project was coordinated by Fraunhofer, a major German applied research organization, with 11 partners across 5 countries. IP ownership and licensing terms would follow the consortium agreement. Contact Fraunhofer for specific licensing options.

Has this been tested with real users in real cities?

Yes — the platform was piloted in Hamburg, Rome, and London with actual citizens and city administrations. Functional front-end prototypes were delivered for agreed use cases with full back-end integration, moving beyond lab testing to real-world urban governance scenarios.

How does it integrate with existing city IT systems?

The platform was built to work with public open data already available in cities. It includes two generic components: an interactive impact assessment model and a web-server user interaction tool. The modular design with separate front-end and back-end components (documented across 28 deliverables) suggests it can integrate with existing data infrastructure.

Is there regulatory compliance for EU data protection?

The project ran from 2016 to 2019, overlapping with GDPR implementation. As it processes citizen data for urban governance, compliance considerations would have been addressed during the pilot phase. Specific data protection documentation should be requested from the consortium.

What ongoing support is available?

The project ended in January 2019. Fraunhofer, as coordinator, is the primary contact for ongoing availability. The consortium included 4 SMEs and 4 industry partners who may offer commercial support or further development services.

Consortium

Who built it

The consortium of 11 partners across 5 countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, UK) is led by Fraunhofer, one of Europe's largest applied research organizations. With 4 industry partners and 4 SMEs making up 36% of the consortium, this is not a purely academic effort — it has real commercial players involved. The mix of 1 university, 2 research organizations, and 4 other entities (likely city administrations or NGOs) reflects the multi-sector nature of civic technology. The geographic spread across major European markets and the 3 pilot cities in different countries strengthens the case for cross-border transferability.

AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBHparticipant · AT
ROMA CAPITALEparticipant · IT
FREIE UND HANSESTADT HAMBURGparticipant · DE
UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, BRISTOLparticipant · UK
GEOVILLE INFORMATIONSSYSTEME UND DATENVERARBEITUNG GMBHparticipant · AT
ICLEI EUROPEAN SECRETARIAT GMBH (ICLEI EUROPASEKRETARIAT GMBH)participant · DE
RISORSE R.P.R. SPAthirdparty · IT

How to reach the team

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (DE) — Germany's leading applied research organization. Contact their smart cities or digital governance division.

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Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to deploy citizen engagement technology in your city or integrate impact assessment tools into your GovTech platform? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the smarticipate team and help evaluate fit for your specific needs.

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