O Beato Creative HubThe project, initially presented in 2017 as a future major hub for entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe, has been one of those projects that has suffered delays time and time again. The inauguration was scheduled for the end of 2018Then the following year. What's certain is that it's 2021, there's still no Hub but work is progressing on site and there's news about what to expect on the sustainability side.
The Hub Criativo do Beato (HCB) wants to be a greener space in line with the new standards of mobility in cities and has unveiled the Living Lab, a kind of hat for its sustainability initiatives and at the same time a living lab with the freedom to test new ideas that could later be implemented by the city.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, Startup Lisboa, the organization responsible for the HCB, says that "from the start" has taken sustainability as "an essential dimension to the project". "HCB aims to be an exemplar in the mobilization and implementation of urban strategies for sustainability and environmental resilience"in four areas that it considers to be priorities: Energy, Buildings, Mobility e Circular Economy & Environment. HCB's Living Lab, as a campus for experimentation, aims to connect the public and private sectors, supporting the "creating an innovation ecosystem for urban transformation" in order to "a just transition to a carbon-neutral society".
The Beato Creative Hub will launch with nine different operations. These are
- the creation of a Smart Energy Communitywhich brings together producer-consumers, consumers and electricity storage facilities, demonstrating an advanced renewable energy community concept based on the solar resource;
- the implementation of a Intelligent Public Lighting, which is based on the LED outdoor lighting system already installed at the HCB and to which various sensors will be coupled that will allow the advanced lighting system management and ensure a reduction in energy consumption;
- the creation of spaces for Urban agriculture on the roof of Factory LisbonThe garden will be set up in one of its main buildings, with different objectives: research, demonstrating the viability of production and involving the community;
- the reduction of emissions in public transport with the Beato BioBus, which uses used cooking oil collected by HCB and the local communityfor the production of biodiesel and to be consumed in buses that will serve the HCB;
- the implementation of a Circular Food Systemwhich promotes circular economy in HCB's food chainThe aim is to develop a material flow tool associated with the restoration system in order to evaluate short chain strategies with different territorial scopes and cycle closures;
- the launch of a CleanTech Acceleration Program with the aim of promoting and supporting the creation of innovative products and services dedicated to clean technologies;
- the creation of HCB i-Management Platform, an Intelligent Management Platform that brings together information from the different operations, enabling the analysis and monitoring of the project's main KPIs, reinforcing the implementation of the strategy smart city and enabling the development of scientific and analytical knowledge for advanced city management,
- the creation of a HCB Sensing and Chargingan infrastructure of posts, equipped with occupancy and environmental sensors, sound systems, video surveillance and charging electric soft mobility vehiclesThis is complemented by a reference weather station and radiation sensors installed on the roofs of selected buildings;
- the creation of HCB Data Labas the core of the CML's Urban Data Laboratory (LxDataLab)It is focused on the challenges posed to the international scientific community in the HCB's priority areas.
"Through this living lab, we also hope to motivate the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem to integrate sustainable solutions into the creation and development of their businesses, as well as inspire the creation of new living labs in other entrepreneurial ecosystems."Miguel Fontes, executive director of Startup Lisboa, said in a statement. HCB's Living Lab will be carried out with European funding, through a multi-year mechanism known as EEA Grants. Through the EEA Grants, the three partner countries - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - seek to reduce social and economic disparities in Europe and strengthen bilateral relations with the beneficiary countries, like Portugalwhich has been allocated a total of 102.7 million euros for the 2014-2021 period.
The project is scheduled to run for three years, ending in 2024. To this end, Startup Lisboa has teamed up with a series of partners, some of them HCB residents: Carris, Circular, DST Solar, Innovation Point, Mota-Engil Renewing, Praça, Prio, Schréder, The Browers Company and Watt-IS. The project also includes the municipal energy and environment agency, Lisboa E-Novaand the Lisbon City Council. It is hoped that the planned operations will benefit the HCB entities and community, the local, scientific and entrepreneurial communities, as well as informing local public policies.
The overall investment in the set of actions to be carried out amounts to around two million eurosco-funded to the tune of 40% by the EEA Grants.
The Beato Creative Hub is a space that is being created in the former Manutenção Militar (the Portuguese Army's factory complex), which will be home to one of Europe's largest innovation and entrepreneurship hubs. When ready, there will be 18 buildings, spread over some 35,000 square meters, of recognized industrial and architectural valueThe new building, which is being reconverted to host a number of national and international entities in the areas of technology, innovation and creative industries, positions Lisbon as an open, entrepreneurial and world-class city.
