Cooperation between the City of Pula and EDIH Adria: Education for the Green and Digital Future

On ICC Reskilling Webinar, Gordan Krčelić, representative of the University of Pula, partner in the EDIH Adria project, presented the cooperation of the EDIH Adria project with the City of Pula, with an emphasis on education tailored to the specific needs of participants. Pula is the only Croatian city included in the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), a European initiative dedicated to the green and digital transitions. In this context, EDIH Adria provides key tools and knowledge for the City of Pula to successfully implement its plans in the field of sustainable mobility, energy and digitalization, with a special emphasis on sustainable tourism and green urban renewal.

The first series of trainings entitled “Efficient operation management’ was intended for employees of the City of Pula and their partners. The training included key knowledge on optimizing business processes, identifying opportunities to improve operations, and implementing new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). This knowledge enables the City of Pula to further advance in the digital transformation, which is crucial for the successful implementation of ICC initiatives.

One of the main goals of the education was to help the City of Pula to improve its processes, ensuring better efficiency and customer satisfaction. Through practical examples, participants learned how to identify problematic processes, define measurable goals and use data to improve the user experience. Operations management was highlighted as a necessary step to upgrade business processes using advanced digital technologies.

The cooperation model of the City of Pula and the EDIH Adria project has been recognized as an example of good practice not only for the cities involved in the ICC, but also more widely, in all EU member states, where public administration bodies, in cooperation with similar EDIH projects in their environment, can usually obtain professional knowledge, competences and support free of charge in their efforts to improve business, employee education, digital transition and sustainability.

In conclusion, the cooperation between EDIH Adria and the City of Pula through these educations not only strengthens local capacities, but also enables the City of Pula to successfully implement projects within the ICC initiative, contributing to their vision of an economically viable and technologically advanced city​