FOREWORD

To address these challenges, it is crucial to invest not only in Research and Innovation, but also in Development - with a focus on human capacity building and on international research networks. [...]the Joint Programme on Smart Cities and all the researchers and research institutes involved are themselves a challenge, though on a smaller scale and with well-defined timelines and contents, yet an opportunity of strategic importance, as we will try to show in this special issue. The scientific-editorial plan is the following: - this first issue is focused on the European pathways for the Smart Cities to come; it has been conceived and organized along a common pathway that each of us, perhaps unconsciously, has followed over the years; - the second issue, which will be probably published in 2019, is dedicated to technologies, systems and tools, i.e. those technologies and enablers that were delivered by RD&I over a time horizon that matches, both symbolically and concretely, the H2020 programme's time frame; - the third issue, which will be hopefully published 2020 - early months, is focused on Smart Cities as fundamental building blocks of tomorrow's low-carbon energy system. What is likely to change is the way we look at pilot projects: they will not only need to prove that they are technologically effective in reaching the desired results, they must also be able to help develop competitive and repeatable business models to be shared by the society, the citizens, the market as well as the industrial, political and financial sectors.