London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC),  Transport for London (TfL), the London Borough of Lambeth, University College London (UCL), AppyWay and Grid Smarter Cities have joined up for London’s contribution to CORESpaces, a new EU-funded project helping cities design and manage urban spaces to achieve climate neutrality.

Cities across Europe face growing pressure to reduce emissions, improve quality of life and respond to increasing mobility and energy demands within limited and contested urban environments. CORESpaces – a 16.4 million Euros project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme – brings together 45 partner organisations from across Europe to test and scale ideas that support cities by enabling smarter, inclusive and climate-neutral urban space planning, use and management. Through AI-driven planning, digital twins and citizen-centric approaches, CORESpaces helps cities translate European climate strategies into practical, deployable solutions across mobility, energy and urban space systems.

At the heart of CORESpaces is a portfolio of transferable and innovative technologies, referred to as COREInnovations, such as dynamic urban space and kerbside allocation, parking management, prioritisation of public transport and active and shared mobility, smart and bidirectional EV charging, federated digital twin and data-space platforms, AI-based decision-support systems, citizen engagement and co-creation tools, and integrated data analytics and visualisation environments.

Ten cities actively drive the deployment, testing and refinement of COREInnovations in real urban environments, ensuring alignment with local needs, planning processes and local policies. London is one of the Leading Living Labs together with Thessaloniki (Greece), Tartu (Estonia), and Eindhoven and Helmond (Netherlands) focusing on large-scale deployment, integration and demonstration of solutions under real operational conditions.

London’s Living Lab

London’s Living Lab convenes leaders in sustainable mobility, transport, kerbside and digital infrastructure to test solutions across the capital – ensuring all interventions align with London’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and climate neutrality goals.

The London team will lead inclusive citizen engagement using advanced AI tools and use data-driven, digital solutions to transform public spaces and make roadside infrastructure more sustainable, reducing air pollution, improving efficiency of space and improving safety for women and girls.

LLDC will lead the team as well as the implementation of activities at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. London Borough of Lambeth will draw on its award-winning Kerbside Strategy through a citizen-led, real-time approach to street management, implementing solutions in sites across the south London borough. Transport for London will advance and promote solutions for sustainable last mile deliveries and freight in central London.

As Scientific and Technical Manager, UCL will coordinate delivery and develop AI-enabled solutions to optimise urban space governance in line with climate-neutral objectives. AppyWay will lead digital infrastructure using AI, IoT and camera-enabled systems to map kerbside locations, while Grid Smarter Cities will manage these kerbside assets through dynamic pricing and demand-led allocation, deploying its Kerb® Delivery platform across all three sites.

Shazia Hussain, CEO of London Legacy Development Corporation, on behalf of the London Living Lab, said: “Joining the EU’s CORESpaces programme alongside our UK partners allows us to contribute to the transition to climate‑neutral cities across Europe. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – as one of the capital’s innovation districts – provides a unique platform to test and scale new ideas and we look forward to working with our partners at the Park, and at other sites across London, to create greener, healthier and more accessible streets that make it easier for people to walk, cycle and use public transport. Through strong cross‑sector collaboration, we are proud to contribute to Europe’s wider effort to build more sustainable, inclusive and resilient cities.”

Dr Emmanouil (Manos) Chaniotakis, Associate Professor in Transport Modelling and Machine Learning at the UCL Energy Institute and Scientific and Technical Manager of CORESpaces, emphasises the project’s scientific contribution: “CORESpaces is uniquely positioned to tackle emerging challenges in urban space utilization through cutting-edge science and technological innovation. It offers cities across Europe a concrete opportunity to rethink how urban space is conceived, designed and governed, through a holistic framework that integrates imagination-driven co-creation processes, urban design and planning, and dynamic, data-enabled management. Placing citizens at its core, CORESpaces will generate actionable scientific and technical outcomes that mobilize cities towards climate neutrality, fairer urban environments and enhanced quality of life.”

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