From RUGGEDISED to INSPIRE™: how a smart city project helped generate a replicability assessment framework.

Challenge

RUGGEDISED, funded under Horizon 2020, brought together three Lighthouse Cities (Rotterdam, Glasgow, Umeå) and three Fellow Cities (Parma, Brno, Gdańsk) to demonstrate, upscale, and transfer smart city solutions. While the project mainly focused on deploying innovative solutions within the Lighthouse Cities, one of its key objectives was to support the Fellow Cities in shaping their own replication pathways — identifying suitable solutions, understanding local barriers and enablers, and designing strategies for potential future implementation.

Among the various activities carried out to support the Fellow Cities, ISINNOVA took on the challenge of developing and testing a structured approach to assess the replication potential of selected smart city solutions. This hands-on experiment would later become the foundation of the INSPIRE™ methodology.

In parallel, a broader Replication Approach was designed and implemented within RUGGEDISED to support the Fellow Cities in exploring and structuring their replication strategies. This process went beyond the development of INSPIRE™ and included capacity-building activities, participatory processes, and the definition of local roadmaps.

From the very beginning, it was clear that replication would not be straightforward. The Fellow Cities faced significant challenges in approaching replication efforts: fragmented governance structures, limited financial resources, weak political mandates, and often a lack of reliable data.

The real question was not only “which” solutions to replicate, but also “if” and “how” given measures could be realistically adapted to cities with such diverse contexts. RUGGEDISED offered ISINNOVA a unique opportunity to explore and experiment with a structured and transparent approach to address this contextualisation challenge.

Our Approach

Within RUGGEDISED, ISINNOVA piloted the first version of what would later evolve into the INSPIRE™ methodology. At that stage, a fully developed tool was not available, but the conceptual foundations of a structured approach to assess replication potential were being laid.

In collaboration with the Fellow Cities — Parma, Brno, and Gdańsk — ISINNOVA defined initial replicability dimensions, developed tailored indicators, and prepared draft questionnaires. The goal was to explore whether it was possible to systematically identify the key barriers and enablers for transferring selected smart city solutions from the Lighthouse Cities.

These efforts were never about producing investment plans or delivering ready-made recommendations. It was about learning-by-doing: testing a methodology in real-world conditions, identifying data gaps, understanding how cities approach replication, and paving the way for what would eventually become the INSPIRE™ tool.

Through this hands-on process, ISINNOVA gathered valuable lessons on structuring replication assessments, setting realistic expectations, and designing an approach capable of supporting decision-making in future projects aiming to successfully transfer technological, infrastructural, governance, or societal innovations.

Lessons learned on smart city solutions’ replication

The replication assessment conducted within RUGGEDISED provided ISINNOVA and project partners with valuable insights into what makes a smart city solution more or less replicable across different urban contexts.

The analysis showed that the replicability of smart city solutions does not depend solely on their technical feasibility or demonstrated effectiveness, but is strongly influenced by urban governance structures, local market maturity, citizen acceptance, and the capacity to secure investments.

Solutions such as district heating expansion and e-mobility infrastructure were found to have higher replication potential across the Follower Cities — Parma, Brno, and Gdańsk — mainly due to their adaptability and relatively limited dependency on highly specific regulatory frameworks.

In contrast, more integrated or complex solutions, such as combined heat and power systems integrated with smart grid functionalities, showed lower replication potential in contexts where governance fragmentation, inadequate institutional capacity, or limited access to financing posed significant barriers.

Additionally, the replication assessments revealed that the same solution can have different degrees of replicability depending on the unique combination of enabling and limiting factors present in each Follower City. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, even for well-performing technologies.

This learning process confirmed the importance of systematically assessing replication conditions rather than assuming that successful solutions in Lighthouse Cities can be directly transferred to Follower Cities without adaptation. Further details and results of the replication assessment are documented in the RUGGEDISED Deliverable D5.7.

INSPIRE™’s Evolution — from cities to national policies

Building on the experience gained during RUGGEDISED, ISINNOVA progressively recognised the need to develop a more flexible and adaptable replicability analysis framework able to go beyond the smart city domain.

The lessons learned during this project were instrumental in shaping what would later become INSPIRE™, a methodology capable of adapting to analyse the replicability potential of different types of solutions, whether technical, structural, or policy-based.

The practical application of replication assessments in RUGGEDISED demonstrated that:

  • a structured approach is necessary to avoid relying on gut feelings when identifying replicable solutions;
  • the methodology can help to prioritise which solutions should be replicated first, based on local constraints and opportunities;
  • results can support follower cities and other stakeholders in deciding whether to adapt or discardreject a solution.

Later, with the work carried out in REGATRACE, ISINNOVA expanded and refined this early framework, successfully applying it to the assessment of national-level policies and strategies in the field of renewable energy. This second application confirmed the adaptability of INSPIRE™ to tackle replication challenges beyond the urban environment

“RUGGEDISED was the perfect playground to learn what replication really means in practice — full of challenges, but also of valuable lessons that helped me shape INSPIRE™ into something concrete and useful.”
 – Loriana Paolucci, Creator of INSPIRE™

Are you working on a project where replicating innovative solutions is a challenge?

Get in touch with ISINNOVA and discover how the INSPIRE™ methodology can help you assess replication potential and guide informed, context-specific decisions.

Loriana Paolucci
INSPIRE™ — Research & Development
lpaolucci@isinnova.org

Stefano Proietti 
INSPIRE™ — Marketing & Promotion
sproietti@isinnova.org

The RUGGEDISED Team

Geemente Rotterdam, Umeå Kommun, Glasgow City Council, Gdansk, AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, TNO – Innovation For Life, RSM Erasmo, Umea University, University of Strathclyde, Brno University of Technology, City of Brno, Comune di Parma, C&C, Ballast Nadam, Ret, Eneco, Kpn, Akademiska Hus, Umea Energi, Upab, Transport Scotland, SP Energy Networks, Siemens, Pic Tech, Uniresearch, Info Mobility, Wheatley Group, Giwk, Future Insight, Iclei Europe, Rise, Region Västerbotten,