Urban ICT Arena is a co-creation and test environment in Kista Science City, north of Stockholm, where companies, researchers and public agencies work together on urban technology. The platform presents itself as an arena for “creating, testing and showing” solutions for more sustainable cities, with a particular focus on digital infrastructure, connected mobility and Internet of Things applications.
Its method is practical rather than theoretical. Urban ICT Arena offers testbeds in a real urban environment, allowing partners to trial services and devices on site and to gather feedback from users and residents. It also functions as a showcase: the arena promotes the companies and projects it works with, while hosting visits from international delegations interested in smart city solutions. Collaboration is central to the model, with academia, the public sector and business brought together around specific projects.
The project’s activity spans urban mobility, IoT and city-scale digital services. One example highlighted on the site is 5G Ride, an innovation project involving Urban ICT Arena, Intel, Keolis, Ericsson, T-Engineering and Telia. Launched publicly in 2021, it explored how 5G and remote vehicle monitoring through control towers could support the introduction of self-driving electric buses in urban public transport. Urban ICT Arena also references work on autonomous and connected vehicles, ridesharing and smart city matchmaking.
The organisation is based at Borgarfjordsgatan 12 in Kista. Its work is closely tied to Kista Science City, a major ICT cluster in Sweden, and it positions the district as a living showroom for urban innovation.