WP4 seminar on ‘Rethinking smart islands’ in Madeira

In the context of our WP4 capacity building, on 26 and 27 October 2021, partners from Madeira (ARDITI and UMa) organised a 2-day seminar on Scientific Excellence in Research & Innovation on rethinking the current view of ‘ smart ’ islands. Key speaker of the sessions was FORWARD Advisory Board member Dr. Norbert Streitz, Scientific Director of Smart Future Initiative.

On the first day, there were presentations of ARDITI by Dr. Rui Caldeira and Lucio Quintal on the FORWARD project and Paulo Abreu on the planned Digital Innovation Hub (DIH). With his keynote “Rethinking ‘Smart’ Islands Towards Self – Aware and Cooperative Hybrid Islands”, Dr. Norbert Streitz then introduced the overall framework and identified the key parameters for Self-Aware, Cooperative, Hybrid Island.

For the second day of the seminar, Christine Riedmann, Managing Director of Marken Factory, developed a concept for the Madeira Island Design Café facilitating the transformation of Madeira into a Self-aware, Cooperative, Hybrid Island. She moderated the seminar with researchers and local stakeholders from Madeira. The objective was to start the transformation, identify specific issues and strategies for Madeira and develop the Madeira Roadmap for Transformation and Implementation.

The event had great success among local stakeholders. The full training report of the WP4 activity can be consulted here.