Universities as smart city drivers in small and medium-sized cities

Many small and medium-sized cities meet their limitations when it comes to deliver longer running smart city services and to manage the complexity of big data. There is a tendency to be stuck in pilots and smaller set-ups because the knowledge and innovation that is required for these projects and services can’t be obtained in organisations, where there is more focus on daily operations and maintaining service levels in welfare. At the same time there is a need for a scientific baseline in relation to move our urban areas towards a more sustainable future. Someone needs to deliver data that can document the challenges that cities stand up against reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This paper describes a case where the local university together with a research-based start-up company have taken an initiative to deploy and manage a network of multi-functional probes (MONTEM CityProbes) that contains a large number of sensors that can track a broad suite of environmental data in near real-time. The service is established with open data capabilities and with a hope to kickstart further innovations in smart city developments and to strengthen the IoT eco-system of the region. The specific example focusses on monitoring the air quality from 25 probes deployed in places with strategic importance and where there is heavy traffic intensity from fossil-fuelled motor vehicles.