Uruguay has launched the first stage of a new smart city on the banks of the River Plate. An extension to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Colonia del Sacramento, +Colonia is aimed to become a centre for the knowledge-based economy of Latin America and a location for national and international high-tech companies and research institutions.

Covering an area of up to 515 hectares, +Colonia will connect the Argentinian metropolitan region of Buenos Aires with around 14 million inhabitants to the Uruguayan capital Montevideo.

Based on a partnership between Uruguay’s National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) and Germany’s Fraunhofer IAO, and backed by the Uruguay Ministry of Finance, the initial project will act as a Living Lab and Regulatory Innovation Zone (RIZ) for novel planning approaches and sustainable technologies. The site will develop and test new human-centred models for communal living and working.

The project is part of the international Fraunhofer Morgenstadt initiative, which was launched in 2012 by more than 10 Fraunhofer Institutes and has since provided scientific support to over 100 cities and urban developments in Germany and around the world. In Latin America, several cooperation projects with cities from Mexico, Brazil and Peru have already been carried out in recent years. Urban future topics such as the increasing use of AI in business and public administration, the importance of regulatory innovations for the practical trialling and testing of future technologies and the significance of renewable hydrogen production for climate-neutral industries are some examples. These will also play a principal role for the project partners in the +Colonia research and innovation roadmap.

“Uruguay is working hard to establish itself as an innovation hub in the region, aware that this is the key to economic growth, social development and the sustainability of the country. In this context, we have decided to promote the +Colonia project, which seeks to become a Smart City model at a regional level. This project integrates advanced technologies and sustainable strategies to create an innovative urban environment, focused on the well-being of people”, said Flavio Caiafa, President of ANII.

“This agreement shows that +Colonia is a fundamental project for Uruguay’s strategic agenda. Together with the different levels of the Uruguayan government, agencies and organisations, we are building a new Smart City ecosystem of global reference, which has added a key global player for smart cities such as Fraunhofer Institute IAO”, said Eduardo Bastitta, founder and CEO of +Colonia.