Founded in 1861 by Father Albert Lacome, the city of St. Albert is a striking blend of culture, history and community. St. Albert began as a small town around the Father Lacombe Chapel—which stills stands today on Mission Hill—in the Sturgeon River valley northwest of Edmonton and grew into the second-largest city in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. In addition to the Father Lacombe Chapel, the city is home to the St. Albert Grain Elevator Park, which houses two historic grain elevators. But for a city rich in historical sites, St. Albert is most defined by its community of residents constantly striving to improve life and embrace new innovation. St. Albert Place, located at the heart of the city, is a classic example of this attitude. It was designed by a world-renowned architect as a “people place” from the start and currently houses the St. Albert Public Library where residents can gather to learn about new technologies and opportunities in the modern world. This gathering of residents from local government positions, local businesses, academia and the general public has produced St. Albert’s Smart City Master Plan.

Access for All

A core component of St. Albert’s Smart City Master Plan is providing high-speed Internet access throughout the community. St. Albert has created its own municipal fiber optic network, which now connects half of the city’s municipal buildings, intersections and assets. The city plans to expand this coverage to all assets in the near future. St. Albert is also using this network to offer licensed wholesale access to community groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and local school districts, as well as to industry.

In addition to fiber, the city is expanding its cellular service infrastructure, including building new towers, new fiber backhaul, and new microcell installations to allow citizens to use their wireless cell service everywhere. St. Albert is working with service providers as part of this initiative to offer free Wi-Fi service in public places throughout the community with most free Wi-Fi locations now up and running.

Training the Workforce of the Future

St. Albert has developed several programs to help train its younger citizens for future careers and to assist young entrepreneurs in the more difficult phases of starting up. The city operates the Collective facility where local youth can access a series of Marketplace programs. The programs include skill-building workshops—such as Ready to Rent, a course that provides education and resources for finding and maintaining housing—counselling and outreach, entrepreneurship training with highly qualified mentors available and the Building Assets and Memories (BAM) program. The BAM program has attracted dozens of youth members who have organized retreats, a youth-issues conference, foreign missions and many popular community events. In addition to these programs, the Collective provides meeting spaces for youth to gather and exchange ideas and for entrepreneurs to get started on their companies.

Fostering an Innovation Ecosystem

To attract innovators to the city as well as provide an ideal environment for local entrepreneurs, St. Albert has partnered with residents and academic and industry leaders to establish itself as a “living lab.” Entrepreneurs and innovators can test their products, ideas, and commercialization plans in the city, making it an attractive place to build new businesses. Since becoming a living lab, St. Albert has seen resident entrepreneurs form an Innovation Council. Working together with the local chamber of commerce, business incubator and university, the Innovation Council launched the St. Albert Innovation Forum in 2017, an event open to the whole community where residents can share new ideas and debate policies for future competitiveness in the city. The Innovation Council has also created a Capital Partnership Program, a new platform to help innovators attract investors.

Digital Literacy at the Public Library

With Internet service rapidly approaching 100% availability in St. Albert, the city has turned to its library to train residents to use all the new technologies available to them. The St. Albert Public Library offers a wide array of digital literacy programs, including classes on using email, mobile devices, social media, Google apps and Microsoft Office products, as well as introductory programming, coding and game design courses. In addition to attending classes at the library, residents can also make use of the library’s Outreach Literacy Van, a mobile classroom staffed by a Community Outreach Librarian. The Literacy Van visits schools, clubs, churches and other community centers and provides a total of 60 different technology literacy programs with more being added each year. The library is currently planning a drop-in Makerspace program focusing on virtual reality, robotics and other emerging technologies to be launched sometime in 2018.

In addition to classes, the St. Albert Public Library has expanded its technological services, providing 45 public workstations with free Wi-Fi access for patrons. In 2017, these workstations saw more than 34,000 Internet work sessions. People have always been St. Albert’s greatest resource, and the city continues to nurture that resource, helping residents achieve their greatest potential and improve life for all.

Population: 65,589

Website: https://stalbert.ca

Smart21 2018

Langley City was named a Smart21 Community on March 6, 2025. A full community profile of Langley City is coming soon.

Population: 30,084

Website: www.langleycity.ca

Smart21 2025 | 2026

Chiayi County was named a Smart21 Community on March 6, 2025. A full community profile of Chiayi County is coming soon.

Population: 479,129

Website: www.cyhg.gov.tw

Smart21 2025

Alcobendas was named a Smart21 Community on March 6, 2025. A full community profile of Alcobendas is coming soon.

Population: 121,446

Website: www.alcobendas.org/es

Smart21 2025

Sant Feliu de Llobregat is a municipality of 46,381 residents located just 10 kilometers west of Barcelona, where it serves as the capital of the Baix Llobregat county and a strategic urban hub within the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. Nestled between Collserola Natural Park and the fertile Llobregat Agricultural Park, more than 65% of its 11.9 km² territory is preserved as protected land, reflecting a deep commitment to sustainability and ecological balance. Far from being a simple suburb, Sant Feliu functions as a territorial hinge – linking agricultural landscapes with industrial zones, and historic heritage with modern innovation – while benefiting from direct access to Barcelona’s port, airport and metropolitan transit networks. With a history stretching from Paleolithic settlements and Roman villas to a modern industrial and service economy rooted in metalworking, pharmaceuticals, textiles and logistics, the city has continually reinvented itself. Today, Sant Feliu combines its civic spirit, cultural vitality and economic diversity to position itself as both a gateway city and a forward-looking community balancing tradition with transformation.

Wifi4EU Breathes New Life into an Unconnected Community

After identifying rising community needs such as students unable to study from home, seniors excluded from e-services and small businesses operating without reliable access, Sant Feliu de Llobregat secured a €15,000 European Commission WiFi4EU grant and matched it with municipal funds. The €21,473 project – spearheaded by the Department of Information Systems, in partnership with the Departments of Strategic Planning, Municipal Facilities Management and the Sant Feliu 2020 Office and implemented by SINTELEC Informatica SL – installed 17 high-speed WiFi points across strategic public spaces such as markets, sports centers, parks and civic squares. Offering 1 Gbps bandwidth, the system was designed with principles of inclusivity and trust: no tracking, no advertising, no login barriers, multilingual access and EU-compliant privacy protections.

Since going live in early 2023, WiFi4EU has become a catalyst for social, cultural and economic vitality across the city. In neighborhoods like Can Nadal, children now complete homework in connected parks, while seniors use the service to access doctors, public services and family. Libraries and community hubs have reported increased foot traffic as residents tap into e-learning and job portals, while youth groups use the connectivity to co-create content and launch entrepreneurial projects. The network has also enabled public events, such as the CO-Innova tech showcase, where a live SIMracing eSports demo highlighted both the capacity and the creativity the system supports.

Building a Culture of Cooperation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Sant Feliu de Llobregat is committed to nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship through a carefully designed ecosystem of programs and partnerships. The city has created an initiative called Learn UP Sant Feliu! to build digital literacy and lifelong learning pathways for residents, ensuring that citizens of all ages and backgrounds can adapt to a rapidly evolving technological landscape. To complement this, the PowerUP initiative provides entrepreneurs with mentorship, technical support and business resources to accelerate the growth of startups and small enterprises. The city also fosters co-creation through PowerUP JAM Sant Feliu, a collaborative platform where students, entrepreneurs and creative professionals develop innovative projects together, strengthening a culture of open experimentation and civic problem-solving.

Citizen participation is also central to Sant Feliu’s innovation strategy. The Citizen Innovation Community functions as both a network and a learning platform, bringing together residents, civic associations, schools and local businesses to co-design solutions to urban challenges. Through workshops, open calls and participatory labs, members test prototypes, share knowledge and influence municipal projects, turning citizens into active stakeholders rather than passive beneficiaries. This community is also a key node in the Motor Group of the Collaboratori Catalunya, enabling Sant Feliu to exchange practices and scale innovations regionally. Another program, TERRITORIS CREATIUS, which transforms public spaces into creative and social hubs, further reinforces this civic-first approach.

In recent years, Sant Feliu has crystallized its innovation vision into a three-pillar model that integrates Building Information Modeling (BIM), the Sant Feliu Innova lab and the Electronic Processing Assistant. Since 2014, BIM has expanded into a citywide digital twin system covering 33% of municipal building stock, achieving cost savings of up to 40% while reducing emissions and modernizing facility management. At the Torre del Roser, Sant Feliu Innova has become a civic innovation engine, hosting programs like Aplic_IA, which has incubated over ten AI-driven civic tech startups in partnership with universities and private investors. Meanwhile, the Electronic Processing Assistant ensures inclusivity by offering live multilingual support for navigating digital services, reducing exclusion for seniors, migrants and small entrepreneurs.

Making Citizen Feedback the Key to Public Improvement

In alignment with the Spanish Urban Agenda Action Plan, Sant Feliu de Llobregat has developed strategies to promote sustainable urban development and improve quality of life for its residents by requesting their participation and feedback. A cornerstone of this approach is the Decidim Sant Feliu platform, an interactive online tool that facilitates participatory processes and broadens access to municipal decision-making. Beyond simply posting comments, citizens can propose initiatives, participate in surveys and follow the development of key projects in real time. The platform was central to the Underground Railway Project, a transformative initiative designed to remove the barrier once created by surface railway tracks. Through Decidim, nearly 2,000 residents engaged with the process, contributing 1,418 comments and proposals, many of which were directly incorporated into the project design. This not only expanded inclusivity, giving voice to residents who could not attend meetings in person, but also strengthened community trust in how the city plans and executes large-scale projects.

To further enhance dialogue between residents and local government, the City Council has established the Citizen Experience space, a physical and virtual forum where residents can provide feedback and gain access to information about municipal services. Complementing this, the Seu Electrònica functions as the city’s electronic headquarters, streamlining administrative processes while promoting transparency in governance. Together, these platforms were integrated into a comprehensive engagement strategy for the Underground Railway Project, which included in-person and virtual informational sessions, guided “paseadas” (walking tours) through impacted neighborhoods, and a regularly updated digital newsletter to keep residents informed. The government also created a dedicated participatory body – the Ponència Unitària del Soterrament – to bring together representatives from all municipal groups to ensure democratic oversight. These combined efforts resulted in high community participation, strengthened trust in public institutions and broad citizen approval for one of the city’s most ambitious infrastructure undertakings.

A Bold Urban Green Transformation

Sant Feliu de Llobregat is pursuing an urban green transformation that unites large-scale infrastructure renewal with grassroots environmental action. At the center is the €120 million Railway Burial Project, scheduled for completion in 2026. The project will bury the railway line that has divided the city for decades, eliminating a dangerous level crossing used by more than 10,000 pedestrians daily and freeing land for over 10 hectares of new green and public spaces. Beyond enhancing safety and reconnecting neighborhoods, the project will increase rail capacity on the R1 and R4 lines, reduce congestion and pollution and create pedestrian pathways, bike lanes and parks that promote healthier, more sustainable mobility. Community participation has been vital to the process, with over 200 residents contributing ideas through workshops, surveys and walking tours, ensuring that the design reflects local needs and aspirations.

Complementing this flagship initiative, Sant Feliu has expanded its network of green spaces and strengthened ecological resilience through tree planting, park creation and sustainable mobility programs. The city has increased green areas by 12%, surpassing World Health Organization recommendations for per capita access, and mobilized over 150 volunteers to maintain community gardens and urban green zones. More than 400 residents have taken part in environmental education workshops, fostering a culture of stewardship and sustainable practice. At the same time, the city has made investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and shared e-bike and moped services to cut emissions and support the transition to clean mobility. Together, these efforts are reducing air pollution, boosting biodiversity and mitigating the urban heat island effect, while enhancing social cohesion, raising property values and creating a more resilient and livable urban environment.

Population: 46,056

Website: santfeliu.cat

Smart21 2025

Image Credit: Mike Chorley

The city was the second European settlement in Australia, founded as a fertile breadbasket for nearby Sydney soon after the First Fleet arrived on the coast in 1788.  Called “head of waters” in the tongue of Australia’s aboriginal inhabitants, Parramatta’s rich soils and abundant fresh water soon gave it a greater population and commercial importance than Sydney.

Today, this city of 280,000 expects a nearly 50% increase in population by 2045. That pace of change will bring major stressors, from employment and affordability to mobility and sustainability. Employment in the city is currently dominated by public funding. Public administration and safety, healthcare, social assistance, education and training make up 42% of all jobs. While providing a stable base, these sectors will not generate sufficient job growth to match the population rise.  The city also has a significant low-income population whose position is threatened by rising cost of living and severe weather.  Parramatta’s challenge is to accelerate private-sector growth and use the resulting rise in public budgets to pay for the infrastructure that population growth will demand.

Digital and Human Assets

Comparing employment in Parramatta with that of Sydney highlights the need. In the former, employment in growth sectors including manufacturing, financial services and professional and technical services makes up 21% of the total. The equivalent for Sydney is 49%.

The educational attainment of its people, however, already exceeds that of Sydney and New South Wales, with 44% of residents holding a Bachelor or higher degree.  With six universities in the city, there is clearly even greater potential to serve local economic development needs. In the pandemic year of 2022, Western Sydney University introduced Launch Pad, which builds foundations in entrepreneurship through degree programs and innovation projects. To help students launch local careers, it offers micro-credentials in entrepreneurial and career skills including additive manufacturing, product management, autonomous robotics and business formation. Competitions, innovation challenges and workshops engage students in hands-on learning, while startup accelerator and internship programs support the transition from school to local work. By 2024, Launch Pad had engaged 6,700 students from 19 different fields of study.

Launch Pad also operates, in partnership with state government, a Women & Multicultural Program to address the disparities in entrepreneurship among women and migrants. Research shows that only one-third of company founders in Australia are women – a percentage that has hardly changed in 20 years. One-third of Australian businesses are owned by migrants, who face barriers to growth in language, culture, market and regulatory knowledge and access to capital. The Program provides training and development workshops, and access to funding, mentoring and co-working space. In its first 18 months, it served nearly 1,500 participants and issued A$150,000 in grants to founders and students.

The City Council extends the same approach to public schools, vocational education and adult learning. The Early Careers Strategy works to develop apprenticeship and trainee opportunities as well as internships and work placements. For those needing work experience, it makes available internships in local government, including a program tailored to students on the autism spectrum.

Innovating on a Digital Foundation

Digital connectivity in Parramatta was transformed by the National Broadband Network, championed by Stephen Conroy, former Minister for Broadband and the Digital Economy. (Minister Conroy was named ICF’s Visionary of the Year for his contributions.) Most premises now have NBN connections, whether fiber or coax, and multiple carriers including Telstra, Optus and Aussie Broadband have stepped in to compete for the market that NBN pioneered. After decades of sub-par service, this competitive marketplace provides the foundation for Parramatta’s economic success.

Putting it to good use is the Western Sydney Startup Hub, operated by SpaceCubed, which provides 1,500 m2 of affordable co-working space with programs and events to support tech startups, scaleups, small business and corporates on their growth journey. In its first two years, the Hub filled half of its total office capacity and guided 34 founders through a structured mentoring and business development program.

Parramatta is also home to the Westmead Health Precinct, one of the largest health, innovation research, education and training hubs in Australia. Spanning 75 hectares, it encompasses two major hospitals, five medical research institutes and two universities that, together, are conducting 3,000 active clinical trials at any point in time.

The Western Sydney Tech Innovators group provides local startup founders with a technology meetup group to share knowledge and build professional networks. It partners with local stakeholders to deliver programs including an AI Lab to build AI literacy, a community forum on AI, an 8-week AI Innovation Studio and an AI Innovation Workshop for young people interested in the technology. It is sustained by partnerships with City Council, the Startup Hub and Launch Pad.

Engagement and Inclusion

To serve those less technically savvy, Parramatta’s libraries offer a range of digital literacy programs for young people, university students and adults. They range from beginner classes to Tech Savvy Seniors taught in English, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin.  Residents can learn 3D design and printing, how to build an app with AI, VR game design, robotics and coding. Over a recent three-year period, the libraries delivered nearly 700 programs to more than 5,000 residents.

Those digital skills enable entry into Participate Parramatta, the city’s online engagement platform. With the city launching over 100 medium-to-large-scale projects every year, the platform gives residents user-friendly tools to provide feedback on what matters most to them. An accessibility widget provides a built-in screen reader and other features to assist people with disabilities. In its first two years, the platform delivered more than 1.1 million page views to 244,000 unique visitors.  This stream of data is enriched by Ward Workshops, in which 50 demographically-representative residents are recruited in each of five wards to share their views on community priorities and satisfaction with services.

Resilience and Adaptation

Much of Australia is on the leading edge of climate change impact. The Parramatta River and its tributaries are subject to flash flooding, which threatens the central business district (CBD), residential areas and transport networks. FloodSmart Parramatta is a warning system that ingests rainfall forecasts and live data from rainfall and river level gauges into a modeling system covering the entire municipality. Subscribers to the system receive automated warnings of flooding in advance. In its first three years, FloodSmart send over 300,000 emails and text messages to subscribers.

Sustainability in Parramatta is about more than reacting to climate change. A home energy advice service launched in 2025, Our Energy Future, provides easy-to-understand advice on energy-efficient products and renewable energy systems. It aims to help residents identify value for money and pick the right options for reducing home energy usage. Buying decisions in just its first four months will make possible nearly A$150,000 in cost savings over the lifetime of the products installed.

Even greater impact will emerge from a CBD Planning Framework. It specifies the use of sustainable building technologies, design of building surfaces and materials, urban heat mitigation solar reflectivity and wind mitigation. It identifies the principles behind high-performing buildings and promotes all-electric buildings and electric vehicles. The Framework was developed through a public exhibition and engagement project that attracted hundreds of comments from residents, interest groups, developers and public authorities. These led Parramatta to become one of the first councils in Australia to specify environmental conditions in the formal Development Control Plan that emerged from the process.

Standing in the shadow of Sydney, its much larger and more famous neighbor, Parramatta is making the investments in people, technology and infrastructure to prepare for a much bigger future – as a global city that, in its own words, “does global differently.”

Population: 269,134

Website: www.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au

Smart21 2025 | 2026

Brightlands is the name by which the province of Limburg, on the eastern border of the Netherlands, prefers to be known. For a nation whose name could be translated as “the lower, hidden land,” Brightlands makes a bold claim on a different destiny.

Brightlands Limberg is a province-wide, open innovation ecosystem where governments, businesses, educators, researchers and the people collaborate to learn, work and innovate. Together, they are growing the economy, improving health and building more sustainable industries, smarter services and a more resilient food system.

Fiber Broadband for All

The Netherlands is highly advanced in connectivity, with nearly 97% of households on broadband. Much of the credit goes to the small size and dense population of the nation, but some belongs to Glaspoort, a joint venture between the KPN telecom provider and a pension fund based in Limburg. It was launched in 2021 to connect 750,000 households and 225,000 businesses across the nation to fiber by the end of 2026. 

In Limburg in that year, the project upgraded infrastructure for the remaining 10% of the population still on older technologies. In the process, it brought the first broadband connection to the half-percent of households that had remained unserved, making 100% broadband coverage as universal as voice service.

Raising Human Capital

Brightlands Limburg sees workforce development as critical to its future. The Chemelot Innovation and Learning Lab (CHILL) is a public-private partnership between educational institutions and industry founded in 2011. Its founding idea was that education, industry and innovation should form one integrated system where talent is not trained in isolation but in direct engagement with real-world challenges.

CHILL has evolved into a province-wide human capital platform bridging from primary school through professional experience. Rather than seeking to create new systems, CHILL focuses on flexibly connecting what already exists. With the help of industry partners, it introduced 4,000 primary school students to sustainability and the technologies of the emerging circular economy, in which end-of-life products become feedstock for new ones. More than 2,000 older students have worked on CHILL innovation projects with startups, SMEs and corporates, focusing on Limburg’s key sectors of advanced chemistry, biomedical tech, health, AI, agrifood and high-tech manufacturing.

When an economic downturn and rapid technology change forced companies to focus on the short term, CHILL pivoted. It transformed programs into redeployment pathways for redundant workers. It offered centralized recruitment to support companies and introduced new programs to train workers for emerging sectors. When engineering and business students were falling short on the personal and professional skills required by modern business, CHILL organized educators and industry to provide workshops and coaching on these “soft” skills.

Limburg’s past as an agricultural and mining center has left it with a workforce that, on average, has lower educational attainment than the Dutch average. Brightlands’ answer is Leo Loopbaan, a platform for career development and lifelong learning based on a public-private partnership of government, education, employers’ organizations and labor unions. Funded by public investment and contributions from partner organizations, it offers free services to residents, from skills assessment and career coaching to workshops and such digital tools as a personal skills passport. To date, more than 38,000 employed residents, jobseekers and students have used its services. Another 4,500 have received direct, personalized support and more than 9,500 have taken part in training programs to prepare for new careers.

Limburg Province borders Belgium to the south and Germany to the east, and the regional economy extends into all three nations. Recognizing an opportunity, higher education institutions representing 100,000 students now pursue transnational education through joint programs, shared modules and cross-border learning pathways to prepare their students for a borderless European economy of tomorrow.

Higher education, in the form of Maastricht University, also focuses on advanced talent development. The Brightlands Excellence Program brings together high-potential individuals from government, business and academia, with a scholarship program to attract participants from outside the Netherlands. Over periods of several months, they work in multidisciplinary teams on real-life regional challenges, from sustainability and health to social inclusion and economic development. While burnishing their own leadership capabilities, they also learn how to collaborate effectively across institutional and sectoral boundaries.

Collaboration at the Center

Chemelot, where CHILL was born, is one of four interconnected campuses that are the heart of innovation in Brightlands Limburg. They attract entrepreneurs, researchers, students and investment from around the world, fostering a vibrant environment of interdisciplinary cooperation and open innovation.

At the Chemelot Campus in Sittard-Geleen, more than 3,000 professionals and 1,000 students are working to develop the materials and chemical processes needed for a more sustainable future. Over 130 companies and institutes develop sustainable chemical processes, circular production methods, advanced materials and biomedical applications. Projects such as Brightlands Circular Space, for example, are creating new pathways for turning plastic waste streams into valuable source materials.

At the Greenport Venlo Campus, innovation focuses on the future of food production. Entrepreneurs, scientists and students collaborate on solutions for healthy food, future farming and the bio-circular economy in high-tech green houses, robotics labs and a Future Farming Institute. Research and development activities explore how food can be produced more sustainably while meeting the needs of a growing global population. Through specialized facilities, research programs and partnerships, new ideas move quickly from research into practical applications.

The Maastricht Health Campus is advancing innovations in innovative diagnostis, precision medical treatments and regenerative medicine. Close collaboration among universities, hospitals and businesses forms a full innovation chain, from scientific discovery through commercialization. State-of-the-art facilities and specialized expertise enable breakthroughs aiming to shape a future where healthcare becomes more predictive, preventive and personalized.

At the Smart Services Campus in Heerlen, the focus is on transforming data into smart services that improve quality of life and economic opportunity. Through innovation labs, a human-centered AI academy and incubation spaces, the campus emphasizes using technology to address societal and economic challenges while creating sustainable value.

Citizen-Led Social Change

The municipality of Sittard-Geleen has become a testing ground for connecting citizens, entrepreneurs and institutions to jointly shape solutions to societal challenges. The center of Limburg’s former mining region, Sittard-Geleen faced the challenges youth out-migration, high vacancy rates in the city center, and weak social cohesion and loneliness among elderly residents. The city’s response was Stadslabs (City Labs), which creates connections between people with ideas and those with resources, funded from multiple municipal, provincial, national and European sources as well as private-sector fees and donations.

To date, 10% of the city’s 92,000 people have taken part in Stadslabs projects. They begin with ideas from individuals or groups, which are quickly tested in real-life settings. Stadslabs connects the relevant partners, supports implementation and, for successful projects, guides further development. A key strength of the program is an active network of 250 Stadsmakers, recognized leaders who take ownership of initiatives, from shop owners organizing street events to a retired engineer teaching teenagers how to repair electronics.

Projects connect biodiversity experts with residents working to create green space. They bring scientists into schools while organizing neighborhood conversations about waste, recycling and circularity. The payoff is not just in projects but in cultural change. Residents who previously waited for government to act now take the initiative. Entrepreneurs collaborate where they once operated alone and public officials increasingly experiment and co-create with the citizens they serve.

Digital Resilience

An estimated 300,000 residents of the province have limited to no digital skills. Limburg’s libraries, however, receive nearly 3 million visits per year, providing a strong platform for training programs in basic digital skills and online public services. Digital inclusion is led by the Cubiss provincial support organization for public libraries, headquartered at the Smart Services Campus, which works to connect technology, society and public services. Its Information Points for Digital Government provide free support to citizens in learning to work with online government services – nearly 12,000 in a single year.  Cubiss also includes training in recognizing online misinformation and media literacy to keep new digital users safe.

Limburg is home to nearly 115,000 businesses across 31 municipalities. As in most places, smaller, owner-led companies lag behind others in digital adoption. The Brightlands AI Powerhouse at the Smart Services Campus works with them to develop AI-driven tools to improve their productivity. It also provides fee-based consulting to municipalities, educational institutions and public organization to upgrade document processing, citizen communication, policy analysis and other vital activities.

Circular Sustainability

The Chemelot Campus aims to become Europe’s first circular economy and climate-neutral chemical site by 2050. Since 1990, it has reduced its carbon emissions by over 45% while production volumes have grown. Key to this progress is the Brightlands Circular Space at the campus. It is an open-access innovation and demonstration facility focused on scaling the circular production and reuse of plastics, with applications in packaging, automotive, electronics and textiles. It is another strong example of how effective collaboration speeds the creation of new business models, new markets, cost reductions and new employment.

To ensure that circularity and sustainability ability are not limited to large industries, more than 1,100 entrepreneurs, researchers and public partners connect in a community platform called Shift Limburg. Launched by the province and a regional development agency, it provides a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs to access practical tools, funding opportunities, events and successful examples of circular business practices.

Making the Most of a Moonshot

Limburg is one of three candidate locations to host construction of the Einstein Telescope, a EU program to build a next-generation underground observatory for detecting gravity waves, whose existence was theorized by Albert Einstein. It will consist of an enormous underground triangle of precisely machined tubing, through which laser beams will travel through vacuum, reflecting between mirrors at the corners. The system will detect gravity waves by measuring minute variations in distance, making it one of the most precise scientific instruments in existence. 

The final decision on the Telescope site is expected in 2027. But that has not slowed either commitment or investment from Brightlands Limburg. In Maastricht, the Einstein Telescope Pathfinder already serves as a test facility for key technologies, while an Einstein Academy is preparing the next generation of engineers, technicians and researchers to work on the program.

Is Brightlands Limburg, buoyed by hope, jumping the gun? On the contrary, the province believes this “moonshot” project is already providing inspiration for innovation and, on a more practical note, attracting both talent and investment to the region. After all, the original American moonshot seemed to leave little legacy but flags and footprints on the moon. But it launched generations of invaluable technology and laid the foundation of industries that have fostered massive growth for decades. 

Population: 1,133,181

Website: www.brightlands.com

Smart21 2025 | 2026

Top7 2026

Tempe, Arizona's designation of a Smart21 Community of 2026 is featured in the Tempe Tribune.

Communities from ten nations across five continents named as semi-finalists in ICF’s annual Intelligent Community of the Year Awards Program

(March 25, 2026 – New York, NY, USA & Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil) – During conference hosted by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) and the Brazilian city of Curitiba, ICF today named the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2026. Curitiba was ICF’s Intelligent Community of the Year in 2024.

The selection of the annual Smart21 Communities of the Year begins the semi-finalist phase of ICF’s annual Awards Program. In June, seven of these communities will be named the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2026 during the Top7 Conference & Announcement in Brightlands-Limburg, Netherlands. Then, in October, one of the Top7 will be named the 2026 Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Global Summit in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Last year’s Intelligent Community of the Year was Durham Region, Ontario, Canada

Celebrated for the "Guggenheim Effect" that transformed it from a declining industrial center into a cultural destination, Bilbao is recognized today for its people-centered digital ecosystem and sustainable urban growth.

Digital and Physical Connectivity

Bilbao’s digital strategy focuses on providing ubiquitous, high-speed access to drive economic and social progress. Broadband reaches more than 95% of premises, and a widespread municipal WiFi network brings wireless service to within 300 meters of every resident. Riding on this infrastructure is an urban service platform managed by BilbaoTIK, the municipal agency for ICT, supporting the Bilbao 2030 Digital Transformation Agenda. The Agenda focuses on creating an innovative, environmentally friendly economic environment and fostering a digital lifestyle for its inhabitants.

Physical connectivity is equally available, with 75% of the population having access to public transport within 300m. Low speed limits on roadways incentivizes the use of such transport, and the network of trams, buses and metro run on hybrid or electric energy.

Future Workforce

The city prioritizes STEM education to prepare its workforce for career success in the digital age. That education is linked to employment and economic development through an array of higher education and research clusters. An Industry Association for Applied Knowledge and Technologies collaborates with universities on skills development for industries in the midst of technology transition. An Audiovisual Cluster brings together major companies in that sector to collaborate with educators on talent development. The Basque Biocluster does the same for companies, public administration agencies and other organizations in life sciences, while the EduTech Cluster focuses on the intersection of education and technology.

The Higher Education and Research Cluster for the Creative and Cultural Industries is an ecosystem of collaboration aimed at maintaining Bilbao’s lead in these industries. With support from the Basque Government, it brings together 27 faculties, colleges and companies.

Island of Innovation

The Zorrotzaurre district serves as Bilbao’s premier urban laboratory. The origins of this 2.5km peninsula go back to the 19^th Century, when it was home to the city’s shipbuilding sector. By the end of the 20^th Century, it was a decaying and flood-prone post-industrial zone that was targeted for regeneration. The 2018 completion of a canal turned the peninsula into an island as part of a flood prevention program that included elevation of ground level and installation of flood protection walls and systems. Two bridges have been completed to connect the island to the rest of the city.

On this improved foundation, Bilbao and the private sector are constructing a mixed-use development of office buildings and more than 5,400 new dwellings, of which half are subsidized housing to ensure social integration. The district is becoming a living lab for the energy transition that tests smart metering, grid monitoring and digital services management. Geothermal and hydrothermal systems create Positive Energy Districts to help achieve a net zero emissions island. A Technology Campus hosts companies specializing in AI, big data and Internet of Things technology

Centering on People

Bilbao’s technology focus has a strong focus on the long-term welfare of its people. It has established BBK Kuna, known as the “house of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),” to act as a center for co-creating solutions that improve residents’ lives. The city also offers “brain training” games in public parks to help keep its elderly population – who make up about one quarter of the whole – digitally and mentally engaged. Residents who subscribe to a participatory budgeting platform can also propose and vote on projects to ensure that their views influence the continuing development of the city.

Bilbao ranks among world’s top cities for sustainability, according to the Global Destination Sustainability Index. In addition to making public transport attractive, the city’s 30 kph speed limit significantly reduces both noise and pollution. Bilbao aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2030 through integrating the SDGs into planning, building renovation, the electrification of transportation, growth in renewable energy and green spaces. City organizations, like the Bilbao Convention Bureau, have adopted circular economy models to reduce waste and prioritize local, sustainable products.

Our digital century has conditioned us to expect instant answers. But transforming a city takes time. The Guggenheim Museum, designed by architect Frank Geary, opened in 1997 as a symbol of change for the city, its people, and millions of tourists who would soon descend on Bibao. After that milestone, decades went into creating the policies, investment, infrastructure and engagement that produced the city of today. As the pace of global economic change accelerates, Bilbao will need to call on the same vision, determination and patience to maintain its progress. 

Population: 344,408

Website: www.bilbao.eus

Smart21 2025