Cities transform and reinvent themselves in the light of new Information Technologies. One of the challenges governments are facing lies in the transfer into the public sector of advances produced by innovation in the private sector.

Internet and new Communication Technologies become key tools for economic and social development of a country, while difficult to control by governments and traditional power lobbies. These new technologies go beyond a simple network of electronic communications.

Within this paradigm fits the new European project: Open Cities (Open Innovation for Future Internet Services in Smart Cities), a project of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) of the European Union with a budget of 2.9 Million Euros over the next 30 months.

Fifteen partners work together in Open Cities, coordinated by the ESADE Business School. The NeTS (Networking Technologies and Strategies) Research Group participates with the City of Barcelona Council through Barcelona Activa, together with European partners from Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlands on behalf of their capital cities (Berlin, Helsinki, Paris and Amsterdam).

Open Cities' main objective is the research in two areas simultaneously: the area of ​​socioeconomics on the implementation of innovations in the public sector and specific research on the impact of the Internet in specific cases applied to the citizenship real life. The project is organized into eight areas of work.

Coordinated by Miquel Oliver, the NeTS  group's researchers Johan Zuidweg, Albert Domingo and Manuel Palacín Department of Information Technology and Communications - (DTIC) at the UPF develop the "Open Sensor Networks" area tasks.

This team of UPF researchers will firstly assess opportunities offered by the platforms of sensor networks within the project framework, then will provide solutions to interconnect existing networks and will present data using advanced interfaces. Finally, they will validate open innovative methodologies that arise during the project.