On 6 July 2018, the +CityxChange proposal was formally invited by the European Commission to become a new smart city lighthouse project, under the “Smart Cities and Communities” call of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The proposal was given excellent comments and scores by the experts, and rated among the very best among the eleven competing proposals.For the next five years, the cities of Trondheim, Limerick, Alba Iulia, Pisek, Sestao, Smolyan and Voru will experiment on how to become smart positive energy cities, that use digital services to improve quality of life for and together with all of their citizens, generate more energy than they consume, and exchange experiences with cities across Europe to learn faster, together.Under the leadership of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), these seven cities will develop and test new solutions together with an impressive list of 11 large entreprises, 9 SMEs, 3 non-for-profit organisations and 2 universities, covering the entire value chain: IES R&D, Powel AS, University of Limerick, Energy Agency of Plovdiv, Future Analytics Consulting, Research2Market Solutions, ISOCARP, TrønderEnergi Kraft AS, ABB Norway, ATB, AVIS Budget Group, Statkraft Varme AS, ESB Innovation RoI Ltd, ESB Networks, Ove Arup & Partners SAU, FourC AS, R.Kjeldsberg, Smart MPower, Space Engagers, Colaborativa, Officinae Verdi, IOTA Foundation, NHP Eiendom, and GKinetic Energy Ltd.The independent experts evaluating the proposal commend +CityxChange for demonstrating and substantiating actions that will contribute to the wide scale roll out of Positive Energy Districts across Europe, with a convincing approach to make local governments an active and integral part of the energy solution, engaging citizens in the city transformation, and involving the entire district energy value chain, extending to high level policy makers and cities, universities, large enterprises, distributed network operators, SMEs, and not for profit organisations“Smart cities is one of the fastest growing cross-sectorial arenas of innovation for IOTA. Building on our work and partnerships across mobility, energy or data marketplace, these smart city ecosystems bring it all together. The +CityxChange consortium gathers many public and private partners around an ambitious open innovation and co-creation initiative. This is 100% aligned to IOTA Foundation’s DNA and we can’t wait to get started.” Wilfried Pimenta, Head of Business Development at the IOTA Foundation.“The IOTA Foundation is excited about the approval of the first official Horizon 2020 project in which we are actively participating. Being able to explore and demonstrate the utility of IOTA within the smart city context in numerous cities across Europe will be incredibly valuable going forward. The fact that NTNU, Norway’s largest university, is heading this effort is tremendous. We have had a good relationship with NTNU and the municipality of Trondheim for quite some time now, and the Foundation expects this collaboration to strengthen our bond and output. As a Norwegian I am personally ecstatic about this project.” David Sønstebø, Co-founder and Co-chairman of the IOTA Foundation.The consortium project will receive 20 million Euros in funding by the European Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020. In addition, some of the project partners add 10 million Euros of in-kind efforts to ensure the local implementation of the demonstration projects in Trondheim and Limerick. Expected project start is 1 January 2019.For more information, please check the dedicated website http://cityxchange.eu or contact Wilfried Pimenta, Head of Business Development [email protected] light from the EU Commission for IOTA and the European smart city consortium +CityxChange was originally published in IOTA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.