€3.1m SmartSpires Project Set to Turn Belval into Connected Testbed for Tomorrow's Cities

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and its partners have announced the launch of SmartSpires, a project which aims to transform Esch-Belval into a connected testbed for tomorrow's cities.

The project was unveiled on Wednesday 4 June 2025 during a press conference held at the Maison de l'Innovation in Esch-Belval, in the presence of Luxembourg's Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Media and Connectivity, Elisabeth Margue.

SmartSpires, a €3.1 million initiative co-funded by the EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), aims to turn Luxembourg's Belval campus into a smart city living lab - a blueprint for cities across Europe. Led by a public-private consortium, including 5SKYE, Gcore, LIST and Orange Luxembourg, the three-year project is set to demonstrate how digital infrastructure and AI can power safer, cleaner and more efficient urban services for residents and local authorities.

According to the consortium, SmartSpires aims to combine densified 5G connectivity with edge computing infrastructure to enable AI-driven and IoT-based services in ultra low-latency environments. The project will deploy at least three smart towers, each equipped with 5G for advanced connectivity, computing for local artificial intelligence (AI) and edge applications, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and various local add-ons to support innovative use-cases in the campus. These towers will form the backbone for real-time and data-intensive applications that are expected to enhance urban management and services, offering a scalable model for European cities seeking to integrate advanced 5G, edge computing and IoT solutions.

As reported by the consortium, this initiative is unique in its integration of connectivity, computing and edge intelligence within a single infrastructure, enabling local data processing and decision-making. This approach is said to reduce latency, optimise energy consumption and enhance data governance, as sensitive information can be processed closer to its source. It also reportedly opens the door for new classes of applications that require real-time responses and high-bandwidth data streams, which would be impractical or inefficient to handle in conventional cloud-based architectures.

At the heart of the initiative are four key smart city use cases, currently being specified and developed in close collaboration with local stakeholders. On the one hand, this includes the Fonds Belval and Agora - described as two central partners with whom discussions are underway regarding infrastructure deployment, with plans to extend engagement to the relevant communes to ensure alignment with local needs and priorities. On the other hand, vertical stakeholders are actively involved and contributing to the definition of the use cases. A Smart City Living Lab, operated by LIST, will serve as an experimentation platform for testing and scaling new 5G-enabled urban solutions.

In parallel, three additional use-cases are targeted to directly exploit the smart towers: mobility services will leverage 5G and edge computing to improve public transportation and traffic management; crowd analytics will enhance public safety and urban planning by analysing the real-time flow of people and traffic; waste management will leverage IoT sensors and local processing to optimise collection and recycling processes. Developing these applications will involve engaging a wide range of stakeholders including the general public, startups and researchers. Together, these technologies aim to create tangible benefits for Belval and its surrounding communities, while also providing a replicable blueprint for other European cities.

"The launch of SmartSpires is a significant milestone in Luxembourg's digital transformation journey. This initiative transforms Belval into a living laboratory for the smart cities of the future by integrating cutting-edge 5G connectivity, peripheral computing and AI," said Minister Delegate Elisabeth Margue. "While the project involves testing technologies, its true purpose is more about improving lives, enhancing sustainability and shaping how cities across Europe can evolve in a more intelligent and responsive way. I am thrilled that Luxembourg is at the forefront of this digital innovation, thanks to the EU's support and the strong public-private collaboration."

The SmartSpires consortium brings together four "key players": 5SKYE deploys and maintains multifunctional smart infrastructure that acts as a neutral host, integrating densified 5G, mini edge compute capability, digital signage and AI-based CCTV analytics; Gcore, as Project Coordinator, coordinates the project and leads edge infrastructure deployment; LIST, as Technical Coordinator, coordinates the technical design, operationalisation and evaluation of the use cases, and oversees the Belval Living Lab; Orange Luxembourg provides the 5G network backbone.

While focused on Belval, the project's ambition is broader: to demonstrate how Europe's cities can build smarter, more connected communities through scalable, efficient infrastructure innovation.