VEFRESH helps companies test and deploy smart city solutions in real urban conditions.
Smart city solutions cannot be commercialized without pilot deployment in real urban conditions, however, getting a prototype from company lab to the street is often a lengthy and complicated procedure. This draws out ‘go-to-market’ time or leads to situations when adequately tested products are released on the market. VEFRESH aims to alleviate the innovation testing procedures and is ready to help those interested to deploy their prototypes in VEF district.
VEFRESH also aims to create favourable grounds for the development of new, competitive solutions, and to foster lean innovation practices also in public administration and other industries.
Urban mobility pre-accelerator ↓
Urban Mobility Pre-accelerator
Urban Mobility Pre-accelerator is a two-month program for established mobility start-ups willing to scale their solution, raise additional funding, get into acceleration programs or receive other support to get to the next stage of business development.
Go to the registration page.
Urban Mobility Pre-accelerator is a bridge that helps start-ups move from early development phases to business stabilisation and growth. As part of the program, start-ups will participate in lectures and workshops on various topics related to business development and workshops with representatives of industry experts from the local and regional start-up development ecosystem. In addition, participants will be able to apply for individual mentoring sessions.
Learn more about the program.
Urban Mobility Hackathon
This summer innovation movement “VEFRESH” in cooperation with the Institute of Electronics and Computer Sciences, Riga City Council, and supported by EIT Urban Mobility will launch the first mobility-focused business incubator program in Latvia - “Urban Mobility Incubator”.
Anyone with a mobility idea is invited to join the kick-off technology marathon “Urban Mobility Hackathon” on April 15-17, where participants from all Baltic States will be encouraged to address the challenges of cities in ensuring climate-neutral mobility. The solutions developed in the online hackathon might later be submitted to the incubator program. During the 48 hour event the participants will be supported by a wide range of mentors nominated by the leading event partner Embassy of the Netherlands in Latvia together with technology companies “Accenture Latvia” and LMT as well as other experts.
City ideas hackathon
In autumn of 2020 24h online VEFRESH city ideas hackathon took place. Participants developed various solutions for the improvement of the city.
Hackathon included ideas about technology, infrastructure, social innovation development and it had 85 applicants motivated to find solutions for their neighborhood or the city.
The process was mentored by 17 experts from wide range fields such as urban planners, business, governmental sector, IT and social activists. It was 15 ideas pitched and 7 teams presented solutions for the city development.
Next generation street lighting
In the VEF district company Teliko offers for residents to try out next generation city street lighting and it operates with Citylight.net movement sensors help.
Solutions like this are tested widely around the world and individually controlled lighting can help to support IoT and machine learning solution development in the city.
Next generation city street lighting controls intensity of the light, based on the real situation around it, not how it previously was - specific scheduled date and time. This solution provides not only that the electricity consumption of the lighting can be up to 3 times lower than that of a normal LED luminaire, but also safety and visibility for people by the night time.
Regulatory sandbox
VEFRESH campaigns for the development of a new legislative act to set up innovation zones that function as regulatory sandboxes.
In 2019 VEFRESH together with law firm Sorainen conducted research and concluded that the current legal framework in Latvia does not allow businesses to test and deploy innovative solutions - drone deliveries, smart traffic solutions, autonomous vehicles and others - in real urban environments. Moreover, there is also no defined process in place for private legal entities to use public infrastructure for the deployment of smart city sensors, cameras or any other solutions.
VEFRESH has been in active communication about the need for a regulatory sandbox legal framework with Ministry of Economics and an agreement has been reached to set up a dedicated working group that will be working with this issue starting June 2020.
Smart city leader groups
VEFRESH represents VEF district as well as overall innovation company interests in smart city leader groups.
VEFRESH has been a part of Latvia’s smart city ecosystem development group since 2018. The strategic group administered by Ministry of Economics unites the country’s largest technology companies, universities, research institutes as well as municipality and state institution representatives to jointly identify the cross-sectoral priorities as well as development barriers.
VEFRESH also actively participates in the recently established smart city working group of City of Riga.
Parkdroid sensor testing
In September 2019 mobility startup Parkdroid in cooperation with VEFRESH deployed and tested their smart parking sensors in VEF district.
Six sensors were deployed in the VEF district that can detect availability of parking space on the basis of changes in the geomagnetic field. The sensors can transmit the information in real time, thus enabling drivers to know the availability of particular parking spaces in advance, which can improve the driving experience as well as reduce carbon emissions. Testing sensors in real urban conditions is important for the company as it allows to hone the accuracy of the solution’s base algorithm and adapt it to the clients’ needs. Additionally, the sensors also use one of the new-gen data transmission forms - NarrowBand IoT, which in VEF district is provided by VEFRESH partner LMT.
Also in the future VEFRESH will continue to support companies that want to validate their solution prototypes in real urban conditions.
Launch of Uzlabo.lv
In December 2019 a new portal uzlabo.lv was launched where residents of Riga can submit innovative ideas for the development of their neighbourhood. The portal has been developed by a team of volunteer developers in consultation with VEFRESH, association Pilsēta Cilvēkiem and Riga Neighbourhood Alliance.
The beta version of uzlabo.lv allows residents to submit their proposals and vote for their favourite ideas, however, within a few months it is planned to implement additional functionalities. In the near future it will be possible to use the portal to bring together supporters of a particular idea and the moderators - neighbourhood associations and Pilsēta Cilvēkiem - will be able to advise the residents on the process of realizing their ideas, for example, with whom to get in touch, how to submit formal application, etc.
In the end of 2020 it is also planned to organize a joint hackathon for further development of most interesting ideas.
Participation in EU projects
VEFRESH participates in various EU project contests and is open to new local and international partnerships.
VEFRESH has developed a local and international cooperation partner network and participates in various smart city and mobility related project contests, incl. Urban Innovative Actions, Horizon 2020, EIT Urban Mobility and others.
Meanwhile, we also invite all companies or organizations that participate in various project contests to consider the possibilities of piloting their innovations in VEF district. VEFRESH is ready to consult and assist all organizations within the process of testing solutions in real urban conditions.