The MICAD project will be presented at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona, from 4 to 6 November 2025, which is the world’s biggest and most influential event on urban innovation! 

In the context of urban and metropolitan development, assessing digital maturity is a key step in advancing strategic planning and supporting the twin green and digital transitions.
In the MICAD project digital maturity plays a central role as it enables metropolitan areas to understand their current level of preparedness for digital transformation and facilitates benchmarking progress across different municipalities.

During the Solutions Lab “The Future of Latin American Metropolises: inclusive, smart, and sustainable”, local government representatives from Medellín, La Paz, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Guadalajara and San Salvador came together to reflect on their shared challenges and explore practical approaches to inclusive metropolitan governance for digital and climate transition in Latin American cities.

As part of MICAD’s mission to support metropolitan areas in leading inclusive climate and digital transitions, the first phase of the project focuses on research, capacities’ assessment, and knowledge-sharing. The work has combined different methods: desk research, survey, and interviews with city representatives, local experts and practitioners from the MICAD metropolitan areas, and collaborative working groups.

Sustainability is no longer an option but an urgent necessity, and digital transformation can act as a powerful catalyst to accelerate this process, provided it is combined with sustainable development principles.
In MICAD these transitions are closely linked and complementary.

Join the next UTA Café Webinar on 29 September 2025 (09:00–10:30 CEST) to explore how digital maturity can support sustainable urban development. Experts from Caspera Lab and the City of Santander will present frameworks, roadmaps, and real-world examples.

The MICAD project has launched its Community of Practitioners, a new LinkedIn group bringing together professionals, researchers, policymakers, and civil society actors working on inclusive climate and digital transitions at the metropolitan level, as well as on related and complementary topics, in Europe and beyond.

From March 12th to March 14th, the MICAD consortium gathered in Chisinau, Moldova, for the project’s official kick-off meeting.