1. New innovation networks through collaboration

The Information Society embodies two key preconditions for the building of innovation capacity: innovation infra-structure and innovation people-networks. It is about technology content, creativity, learning processes, and people networking. Smart Cities will build integrated academic/governmental people-based networks that enable effective information sharing and use into economically relevant knowledge and technologies.
Regional authorities must reach beyond traditional co-operation and chart new territories of cross-sectoral net-working to ensure their regions and NSR remain competitive. "Effective and innovative public administrations are essential to a globally competitive Europe." (i2010 e-Government Action Plan, 2006). The project will model and apply practices from across the full triple helix to serve all user groups and create such 'administrations'.

2. Information exchange to planned co-designed public e-services and methodologies

Cities and public organisations around the North Sea are transforming their regions through e-Government strategies. Some organisations excel at certain strategic themes, such as e-health, e-government, e-learning or e-inclusion. To excel at a particular strategic theme requires a complex web of inter-related factors, such as local service needs, local expertise and access to innovation networks across all partners within the triple helix.
Smart Cities believe that simply "exchanging" good practice simply is not enough. Best e-practices require a solid academic grounding, an understanding of the local context as projects are necessarily rooted localy; tailored to regional needs while aligning with the National, NSR and European strategies.

Today regions are tackling this challenge at different rates, using different methodologies, with limited success of-ten ignoring existing methodologies, practices and support networks. At the same time there is no EU solution for implementing an efficient regional innovation policy.
Smart Cities believes that public services need to be co-designed using the triple helix; public data needs not just to be shared but to be constantly refined through re-use, feedback loops and network evalution; and new public sector methodologies will be tested for user channel suitability and promotion.

3. Co-design, integrated mainstreaming and academic involvement will lead to transnational transferable methodologies and e-services

Regional authorities already at the forefront of e-Government best practice in national arenas will work together in Smart Cities to carry out transnational benchmarking, joint development, documented transfer of good solutions and collaborative learning cross-sectorally. This firstly will be supported by a transnational academic network which creates a shared and validated model for the successful co-design, piloting and communication of prac-tices, methodologies and tools.
Secondly, key national and regional policy makers will be involved throughout the project life-cycle. Co-designing with national authorities involved in the project ensures mainstreaming at a national and European level.The prac-tical outcome of this cross-sectoral and transnational collaboration will be a new baseline for e-services in the NSR, with a strong potential for mainstreaming. Where dissemination means “everybody knows”, mainstreaming means “everybody accepts a solution as valid and plans to roll it out”.