CEF Building Blocks: Enabling DIHs to build Europe’s Smart Cities
On 30 April 2020, the European Commission organised a webinar on 'How can Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) help the transition towards smart cities?’.
Digital Innovation Hubs are not-for-profit organisations supporting the digital transformation of SMEs and public sector organisations. They provide access to technical expertise and experimentation (“test before invest”) as well as innovation services, such as financing advice, training and skills development that are needed for a successful digital transformation.
This webinar brought together Living Labs, City Labs, Policy Labs as well as cities and municipalities to share good practices for helping cities develop their digital strategies, establish the foundations of their smart city and start developing concrete services. Together with the Member States, the Commission will invest in DIH capacities through the Digital Europe Programme.
Reusing the CEF Building Blocks
This webinar included a presentation on how the European Commission supports the creation of Smart Cities through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks.
What is a Building Block?
A basic neutral and sustainable digital component - based on standards - that help interconnect European digital infrastructure, and help public administrations and businesses comply with existing EU Regulations. This empowers digital transformation and helps build Europe’s Smart Cities.
The Building Blocks consist of Big Data Test Infrastructure, Context Broker, eArchiving, eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and eTranslation. A Blockchain DSI (the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI)) will soon become an operational Building Block and the Once Only Principle (OOP) is a preparatory action under CEF.
A CEF Building Blocks consists of:
- Standards: All Building Blocks are based on standards; any digital service or product using a Building Block will therefore be EU-compliant, interoperable and secure
- Software: A Building Block can also be (sample) software, or software as a service, to be implemented in your project
- Support: A Building Block team helps implement the Building Block in your project, providing training, support and testing your service for compliance so it’s interoperable across sectors and borders
How do I reuse a Building Block?
To implement or reuse a Building Block you can buy a compliant, interoperable solution from the market, reuse a sample software available provided by the Commission or build an EU-compliant solution from scratch based on Building Block standards. Our teams will help you test it for compliance and interoperability.
To learn more about how the CEF Building Blocks support the work of Digital Innovation Hubs and development of Smart Cities download the presentation (below, PDF) and visit the CEF Digital site.