• València Innovation Capital will select up to six pilot projects for startups and SMEs to test artificial intelligence solutions for floods, fires, civil protection, and emergency management, as part of the Valencia City Council’s GovTech Challenges and the European CitCom.ai project.
• The experiments last three months and are funded with up to 10,000 euros each, for a total of 60,000 euros. Proposals may be submitted through November 11.

València Innovation Capital is launching a call for proposals aimed at companies, SMEs, and startups that want to test and validate artificial intelligence solutions applied to emergency prevention, response, and civil protection. The initiative is part of the Valencia City Council’s GovTech Challenges and is being carried out within the framework of CitCom.ai, through its Southern node, which is coordinated from Valencia.

The call for proposals aims to align technological innovation with the city’s specific needs, enabling companies to experiment in a real urban environment, assess the usefulness of their solutions, and advance their development. The experiments will last three months and are expected to generate knowledge and results that can be transferred to other European cities facing similar challenges.

Six Urban Challenges for Implementing Artificial Intelligence

The call for proposals is structured around six separate challenges, all related to improving emergency prevention and response:

• Flood forecasting: to improve the forecasting of flood events and estimate their potential extent and impact.
• Resource Management for Firefighting: Optimizing the allocation of resources, routes, and coordination among emergency services.
• Identifying individuals who need support: facilitating the identification of assistance needs, while ensuring appropriate privacy and data protection safeguards.
• Public emergency alert systems: improving the reach and accessibility of alerts so that they effectively reach the public.
• Visualization of resources from various emergency services: to provide a shared view of relevant information for services such as the fire department, police, and 112.
• Smart traffic management and crowd detection: anticipating traffic congestion and large gatherings of people, especially during major events, to improve mobility and the response to potential emergencies.

One proposal will be selected per challenge, provided it meets the minimum required scores. If no proposals are submitted for a particular challenge, the funding allocated for that challenge may be used to fund a second proposal from another challenge, with a maximum of two projects per challenge.

Infrastructure and specialized support for conducting experiments in a real-world environment

The selected companies will receive support from the Valencia TEF, which provides an environment for developing, testing, and validating AI solutions under real-world conditions. Available resources include expert guidance on defining use cases, algorithm development and testing, the urban AI sandbox, and cybersecurity support.

Users will also have access to infrastructure such as the VLCi urban platform, the VRAIN GPU cluster, and CitCom.ai’s Minimum Viable Data Space, as well as the city’s open data. Access to certain municipal data may be requested through the urban sandbox and will be subject to prior authorization, technical feasibility, and compliance with data protection and security requirements.

These resources will enable teams to address specific urban problems, compare their solutions with the needs of public services, and assess their potential for application in other contexts.

Paula Llobet, the Councilor for Innovation at the City of Valencia, states that “artificial intelligence offers new opportunities to improve risk prevention, the coordination of public services, and the protection of people.” “With this call for proposals, we aim to apply technological innovation to the real challenges facing Valencia and enable companies to test their solutions in an urban environment, evaluate their usefulness, and move toward applications that make a real difference. Collaboration between the City Council and the innovation ecosystem is essential for building a better-prepared and safer city.”

How to participate

Companies, SMEs, and startups may apply, either individually or through a temporary joint venture (UTE), provided they meet the requirements set forth in the rules. Each company may submit only one proposal and may participate in only one challenge.

Each experiment will receive a maximum grant of 10,000 euros, excluding VAT (60,000 euros in total for the six challenges). Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Public Sector Procurement Platform, with an anonymous technical report—containing no information that identifies the company—and the administrative documentation in separate files.

A jury appointed by València Innovation Capital will evaluate the technical proposals anonymously. The main criteria are the quality of the approach and its relevance to the challenge, technical feasibility, the team’s experience, originality, expected impact, scalability, compliance with ethical and data protection standards, and accessibility.

The submission deadline is November 11, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. The complete terms and conditions, requirements, and necessary documentation are available on the procurement platform. [Link to the request for proposals on PLACSP]

About CitCom.ai

CitCom.ai is a European project that promotes testing and experimentation facilities for the development and validation of artificial intelligence solutions in smart and sustainable cities and communities. Its network is organized into three nodes (Central, Nordic, and Southern); Valencia, the coordinator of the Southern node, provides the innovation ecosystem with infrastructure, specialized knowledge, and opportunities for experimentation.