The Horizon 2020 project Triangulum gave the Stavanger status in 2014 the status as a European lighthouse city, disseminated via the Stavanger Region European Office. The project has had ripple effects for the entire region and has both directly and indirectly facilitated several new EU projects. Nordic Edge Expo originated in the wake of the Triangulum project and has become the Nordic region’s largest smart city conference in a few years.

What is Triangulum

The Triangulum project was funded by the EU framework program for research and innovation, Horizon 2020. The project started in 2015 and ended in January 2020.

The goal of Triangulum was to show, share and repeat the solutions developed by the lighthouse cities of Stavanger, Eindhoven and Manchester. The companion cities of Sabadell, Leipzig and Prague gained experience from the demonstration projects and showed the way for other cities that wanted to develop innovative solutions that responded to the societal challenges identified by the EU. The Triangulum project demonstrated tomorrow’s solutions, and integrated energy, mobility and ICT through innovative and efficient solutions.

Triangulum had 22 partners, five of which made up the local consortium in the Stavanger region; namely Stavanger Municipality, Lyse A / S, Rogaland County Municipality, the University of Stavanger and Greater Stavanger. Stavanger Municipality coordinated the local partnership.

First-generation lighthouse town

When the Triangulum project received EU funding in 2014 together with the other two projects Remourban and GrowSmarter, this was the first round of funding for this so-called lighthouse city project. Triangulum received 25 million euros from the EU, distributed among the 22 project partners.

Triangulum was one of 14 lighthouse city projects, and Stavanger is one of about 40 lighthouse cities. The call changed over time and was given more focus on energy-positive districts as seen in the two most recent projects + CityxChange and Making City, the principle remained the same – to solve societal challenges related to climate and energy. Urban development with innovative sustainable solutions within energy, mobility and ICT were important keywords. In addition, it was about citizen involvement and showing the solutions that had market potential and that offered good investment opportunities at the same time as they document a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Our role

Vår rolle

The Stavanger Region European Office played up the opportunity and mobilized Stavanger municipality and the rest of the local consortium to participate.