The project and the TEFs
What a TEF is
A Testing and Experimentation Facility (TEF) is a place where companies test AI and robotics products in real conditions before they reach the market. The European Commission funds TEFs in several sectors; CitCom.ai is the one for smart and sustainable cities and communities.
In practice, a CitCom TEF site is a city, a living lab or a research centre that offers:
- Real environments: streets, buildings, energy grids or mobility hubs where a product can run.
- Data: city platforms with sensor and open data, increasingly shared through a data space.
- Expertise: help to scope the test, check regulatory compliance (GDPR, the AI Act, cybersecurity) and assess the result.
The project brings together more than 30 organisations in 11 EU countries. The CitCom TEF website is the entry point for companies that want to test a product.
Three super-nodes
The sites are grouped in three super-nodes, each with a theme. A super-node is a regional hub that shares expertise and resources between its sites.
| Nordic | Central | South | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme | POWER | MOVE | CONNECT |
| Focus | Energy, environment, cybersecurity, ethics, edge learning | Mobility and logistics | Securely connecting citizens, infrastructure, AI and robotics across city services |
| Lead | Denmark | Belgium | Spain |
| Countries | Denmark, Sweden, Finland | Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands | Spain, Italy, Poland |
Every site has its own page in the TEF network.
Why a common architecture
Each city already has its own data platform, often built years ago with its own interfaces. A product tested in one city would need a new integration in the next one. CitCom avoids that by agreeing on a few common points:
- the same API and data models to read city data (interoperability level 1);
- the same way to share data under control, between organisations that do not have to trust each other in advance (level 2: data spaces).
A service built on those points runs in any city that follows them. The MIAIS shows how.
The minimal package for TEF nodes
CitCom has two kinds of offer, for different audiences:
- The TEF nodes offer services to AI and robotics innovators: test sites, data, expertise and assessment. The CitCom TEF website lists them.
- CitCom's work package 3 (WP3) offers the TEF nodes a minimal package: a common reference architecture, with the guides, tools and deployment examples to apply it. Nodes that adopt it share a common technical base, so a service built on that base can run in any of them. This hub gathers the package:
-
A working data space
Running infrastructure that sites and companies can join, with real data from Valencia.
-
A worked example
An AI service that goes from a custom integration to a data space service.
-
Guides and tools
One guide per task, and the tools to connect a city platform.
-
Trust and assessment
The AI Trustworthiness Label to assess the services tested in the TEFs.