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VEFRESH is an open innovation movement that aims to redevelop VEF district as a smart city testbed and first innovation district in Riga, Latvia. VEF district and its surrounding territories is home to large technology corporations, start ups, scale ups, research and education institutions, accelerators, venture capital companies as well as conference and culture venues. Innovation movement VEFRESH was established once the district’s technology leaders joined forces with real estate developers and Riga municipality owned culture venue VEF Kultūras pils. The new movement aims to redevelop VEF district as an innovation sandbox where corporations, start ups and public sector can prototype and test their latest solutions in public space. VEFRESH has also set out to transform this location as a dynamic environment with a lively culture, innovation and education event programme. VEFRESH works in close cooperation with City of Riga and Ministry of Economics of Latvia to meet these goals and in 2019 the parties signed a cooperation memorandum agreeing to jointly develop VEF district as Latvia’s first smart city.

History
VEF district in Riga gets its name from the former electronics giant Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika (VEF) and has historically been the home of technology innovations in Latvia as well as a substantial economic force in the region. It is no surprise that 100 years after its foundation, the district has yet again become a hotspot of Latvia’s main technology companies.

Innovation
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 HACKATHON
In the summer of 2021 VEFRESH in cooperation with the Institute of Electronics and Computer Sciences, Riga City Council, and supported by EIT Urban Mobility launched the first mobility-focused business incubator program in Latvia - “Urban Mobility Incubator”.

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.

Inspiration
VEFRESH provides a platform for innovation topics and organizes engaging events in VEF innovation district.

The movement organizes various thought-provoking and educational activities with the aim of bringing together residents, tech enthusiasts and urban development experts. Similarly, VEFRESH promotes and supports public innovation and technology events that take place in VEF innovation district.

VEFRESH AUDIO
Audio course is about current issues of urban environment, mobility and social innovations in Latvia and in the world. VEFRESH audio is created for everyone who is interested in the development of their neighborhood and city, but especially for those who, inspired by the good examples of the world, would like to try an idea in a real environment.

Infrastructure
VEFRESH promotes sustainable infrastructure development and helps to create VEF district as a place where technology improves the residents’ quality of life. Throughout smart city solution testing and deployment, the priority in the district remains people-friendly and sustainable infrastructure development. Additionally, VEFRESH aims to promote data based mobility solution development to improve the district’s accessibility.

VEF MOBILITY POINT
Riga Energy Agency and Ie.La inženieri together with VEFRESH has developed the first prototype of mobility point in Latvia which was opened for public use in July 2020.

Education
VEFRESH facilitates the development of competitive STEM education in the district and fosters cooperation between companies and education institutions. Recent year polls show that only 2.1% of girls and 12.7% of boys in Latvia plan to link their professional lives to IT sector. At the same time, policy think tank Certus predicts that to satisfy the growing market needs, there should be around 3000 new IT graduates every year. However, the current amount of IT programme graduates stands at about 700 per year. VEFRESH together with IT education foundation and other partners is actively engaged in several activities to generate interest in IT related career options. VEFRESH movement aims to develop VEF neighbourhood not only as an innovation district for tech solutions, but also for various education and public engagement initiatives.