Integrated Digital Transformation and Smart Governance for Communities (<50k Inhabitants)

We invite companies and European research centers specialized in smart villages and smart territories to co-design and implement a comprehensive, integrated model for the digital transformation of small rural and peri-urban communities (≤50,000 inhabitants). Our initiative proposes a holistic intervention across the value chain of public services—encompassing health, education, local economic development, environmental management, and public administration. The project is firmly grounded in the paradigms of “local first” (prioritizing local data sovereignty and governance) and “appropriate technology” (deploying robust, affordable, and context-sensitive solutions).

OUR APPROACH AND VALUE ADDED:

We operate on the entire information value chain for community development through segmented interventions, that we are now planning to integrate into a holistic solution, encompassing three core activities:

1. Digitization of Core Records: Starting with the basic digitization of administrative, medical, and educational records.

2. Data Capture and Integration: Advancing to the local capture and secure transmission of multi-source data—including sensory (environmental), productive (agricultural, economic), epidemiological, educational and operational data—routinely generated by primary health centers, schools, and local agencies.

3. Local Intelligence and Decision-Making: Culminating in the local consolidation, processing, and analysis of this data to empower informed, evidence-based decision-making at the municipal level.

We contribute multidisciplinary teams with deep expertise in territorial engagement and proven methodologies for local development. Our consortium includes partner organizations with a strong track record in systematizing and analyzing complex information, demonstrated through application cases in diverse Argentine ecosystems such as Patagonia, the Gran Chaco, the Andean region, and the Pampas. Our specific expertise spans tele-epidemiology, precision agriculture for smallholders, municipal e-governance, and community-based environmental monitoring. Furthermore, we offer extensive experience and networks in comparable Global South contexts, along with personnel trained to operate effectively in resource-constrained environments.

EXPECTED RESULT AND NEED FOR COOPERATION:

The ultimate objective is the rationalization and progressive digitization of municipal governance, empowering local authorities with a stream of processed, actionable data on environmental, productive, educational, and health metrics. To materialize this integrated model, we seek European partners to contribute with:

• The adaptation, co-development, and/or validation of affordable, low-maintenance, and energy-efficient technological solutions (both hardware and software).

• Demonstrated experience in implementing data governance models and decentralized technological architectures (“local first”) within smart village or smart territory projects.

• Practical expertise in the secure integration of heterogeneous data flows from IoT sensors, public service platforms, and community-generated information.

• Proven capacity and strong interest in co-submitting proposals to major international funding calls, particularly within Horizon Europe Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry and Space) as the primary anchor, with clear linkages to Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment), Cluster 1 (Health), and Cluster 2 (Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society) for social innovation components, as well as relevant bilateral and regional cooperation programs.

PROFILE OF THE EUROPEAN PARTNER SOUGHT:

We seek companies (SMEs or large), technology research centers, or consortia with demonstrable, hands-on experience in implementing smart village/smart territory projects in non-metropolitan contexts. Ideal partners will have solid knowledge in one or more of the following fields: digital governance (e-Government/GovTech), digital health and education (eHealth/mHealth, EdTech), environmental monitoring/climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and the development of inclusive technologies that bridge the digital divide. A genuine commitment to developing, piloting, and validating scalable and replicable models within the specific contexts of Latin America and the Global South is essential.

Ideal partners have a “frugal innovation” and “backward compatible” mindset and experience, piloting solutions in similar community contexts, with a desire to co-create exportable models. This opportunity represents a strategic collaboration to pioneer tangible digital inclusion, creating an exportable reference model that synergizes deep territorial knowledge with cutting-edge, context-adapted European technology.