With the help of the partner cities, the Academic Network has been working on research project to develop a baseline model to evaluate the main dimensions of a smart city, with e-government and ICT issues at the forefront, but also looking at economic and demographic indicator.

The research is being led by Edinburgh Napier University's Mark Deakin and Peter Nijkamp from the Free University of Amsterdam.
The goal of this exercise is to gather all the information required to help the partner cities in understanding their specific strengths and organizational trajectories, and to build the statistical databank that will be used to draft suggestions and policy recommendations for further improvements.

The results of the research will give the partner cities a double result:

• Allowing their relative performance to be framed with respect to other partner cities, in particular in terms of ICTs and e-gov;
• Fitting their data into a general and comprehensive EU-wide framework will allow better assessment of their possible competitive advantages, using the results for scientific inference on “best practices” to follow, and scientifically sound policy implications.

The partner cities have now supplied their data to the research team and initial research is now beginning, with first results expected before the end of the year.