On 25 June 2026, the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC launched its national activation approach during a webinar for Italian public administrations, organised together with the Living-in.EU community.
The session marked an important first step in building national EDIC ecosystems: networks of cities, public administrations, national organisations, research actors and European partners working together around Networked Local Digital Twins and Citiverse services.
Rather than presenting the EDIC as a one-size-fits-all European framework, the session focused on how the EDIC can connect with existing national initiatives, local priorities and practical city needs. For Italy, this means identifying how local digital twin experiences, national networks and ongoing projects can contribute to a more interoperable and scalable European ecosystem.
Jan Wester, Director of the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC, opened the session by introducing the EDIC and explaining why national collaboration is essential to its implementation. The EDIC aims to support cities and regions with common digital infrastructure, services and tools that help avoid fragmentation, strengthen interoperability and make digital twin solutions easier to reuse across Europe.
The Italian perspective was presented through several complementary contributions. Lucia Merlino and Anna Zilioli introduced AnciLab’s role in the EU Smart Communities Network and shared insights from Italian local digital twin initiatives, including the FREE-WAY smart mobility project developed in the province and city of Como.
The session also brought in experiences from other European contexts. Koos Boersma, representing the Netherlands in the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC, explained how Dutch geospatial data initiatives are helping to address challenges such as housing and the environment, while contributing to a bottom-up local digital twin ecosystem at European level.
Antonella Longo presented the ECHO-TWIN project for federated local digital twins and highlighted the cooperation between the University of Salento and the city of Brindisi, including potential synergies with the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC and the EU LDT Toolbox. Gelsomina Macchitella then shared Brindisi’s experience as a city testbed, showing how digital innovation can be connected with local resources, partnerships and urban regeneration priorities.
The session concluded with an interactive workshop moderated by Jaan Saar. Participants discussed what Italian administrations need from the EDIC city journey and service portfolio, helping to shape future services around real local requirements and national contexts.
This first national activation session confirms a key principle of the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC: European scale will only be achieved by working with national ecosystems and city-level realities. The goal is not to replace what already exists, but to connect, validate and scale what works — enabling cities to benefit from shared infrastructure, common standards, practical guidance and a stronger European market for interoperable digital twin and Citiverse solutions.
The recording of the session is available here, while the slides can be accessed at the following link.
For questions regarding the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC, please contact communications@ldtcitiverse-edic.eu.
EN