What NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab does

NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab is a research network and analytics laboratory operating under NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS) at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Established in 2020, the lab serves Portuguese municipalities, intermunicipal communities, and national government entities by developing applied urban data science solutions. Its work centers on transforming municipal, sensor, and mobility data into actionable intelligence for smart city governance, mobility planning, environmental monitoring, and open data infrastructure, with a stated ambition of contributing to UN SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

The lab's portfolio spans dedicated urban intelligence platforms (LXDataLab, NextCity urban digital twins, Smart Region), territorial intelligence systems (IVDP Data+ for the Douro wine region, MarIA for maritime data, Rural Dados and Dados Desertificação for agriculture), and specialized analytical tools such as the Walkability Indicator, Illegal Parking Score, LX Analytics Hub for fire brigade optimization, and LLM-based AIVENTS agents for event decision support. Underlying capabilities span predictive analytics, computer vision, natural language processing, generative AI, optimization, and anomaly detection, drawing on multi-modal data sources including IoT sensors, anonymized mobile device data from operators such as Vodafone, municipal operational systems, and satellite imagery.

The lab operates as an academic R&D entity rather than a commercial product company, funded primarily through publicly co-financed research projects under instruments such as SAMA2020, Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), Portugal 2020, the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), MIT Portugal Partnership 2030, and Carnegie Mellon Portugal Programme. Revenue flows through cooperation protocols with municipalities and public entities on a project-by-project basis. Demand generation is community-led and event-driven, anchored by the annual Smart Cities Tour, Portugal Smart Cities Summit, and participation in the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, supported by a national network coordinated through ANMP's Smart Cities section and the Smart Portugal platform.

Name

NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab

Legal name

NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab

Website

https://novacidade.pt

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

NOVA Cidade is a Lisbon-based university research laboratory within NOVA IMS that develops applied urban data science solutions, including predictive analytics platforms, digital twins, and AI-driven decision support tools, for Portuguese municipalities, intermunicipal communities, and national government agencies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Smart Cities & Urban Analytics Software

NAICS

Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Smart Cities & Urban Innovation Programs (Digital Planning, Civic Tech for Cities) (BPAIANAJ)

Keywords

• Urban analytics
• Smart cities
• Data science
• Geospatial intelligence
• Urban data platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Lisbon

HQ country

Portugal

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Public Sector Research Grants and Co-funded Projects: The primary revenue model consists of publicly funded R&D projects through instruments including SAMA2020 (Support System for Public Administration Modernisation), Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), Portugal 2020, Portugal Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), MIT Portugal Programme, Carnegie Mellon Portugal Programme, SI I&DT (Business Innovation Incentives), and the Permanent Forest Fund. Projects are implemented through Cooperation Protocols with municipalities, municipal associations, business associations, and other public entities. Services range from technical advisory to bespoke solution development and training.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab is a university research laboratory at NOVA IMS that develops data-driven solutions for cities and territories, including open data portals, digital twin platforms, geospatial dashboards, and predictive analytics tools. It produces applied research outputs, software platforms, and postgraduate training programs focused on smart cities, urban analytics, and evidence-based municipal decision-making.

Product overview

NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab operates as a research and analytics laboratory that develops a portfolio of interconnected urban intelligence solutions. The core offering includes the Analytics Lab platform for urban analytics and visualization, complemented by specialized data platforms such as LXDataLab for Lisbon, NextCity for urban digital twins, and Smart Region for integrated territorial intelligence. Key platforms include Lisboa Aberta, Rural Dados, and Dados Desertificação for open data management. The organization also delivers specific analytical tools including walkability indicators, emergency risk prediction models, and parking analysis solutions. These products work together to support municipal decision-making through data collection, processing, analysis, and visualization across areas including mobility, environment, public safety, waste management, and urban planning. The portfolio is supported by training programs and collaborative networks like Smart Portugal.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Urban Analytics Lab Services Applied research and consulting services in urban analytics, data science, and smart cities delivered to Portuguese municipalities and public agencies through NOVA Cidade at NOVA IMS.

Quantifiable outcome

• Smart Port LX project: focused on making Port of Lisbon a connected, sustainable, safe, and automated port through smart infrastructure and management practices.
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability11 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

29 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship, important and minor.

• ANMP - Associação Nacional de Municípios PortuguesescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership with Portugal's National Association of Municipalities to implement annual smart cities activities under the Smart Portugal initiative. ANMP's Smart Cities section, which became the largest section within ANMP within two years, is a key coordination partner for the Smart Cities Tour and Cimeira dos Autarcas events, as well as the Portugal Smart Cities Summit.
• Câmara Municipal de LisboacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrimary municipal partner for multiple flagship projects including LXDataLab (urban data lab), Smart Port LX, LxAnalytics Hub (fire brigade optimization), urban mobility analysis, and the Lisboa Inteligente portal. The municipality provides data infrastructure and real-world deployment context for the lab's analytical solutions.
• MIT Portugal Programme (MPP2030)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMIT Portugal Partnership 2030 is a key research funding and collaboration instrument. NOVA Cidade participates in C-Tech (Climate Driven Technologies for Low Carbon Cities), where MIT researchers from the MIT Sustainable Design Lab and MIT Trancik Lab contribute directly to the project, providing specialized knowledge in urban climate modeling and carbon reduction.
• Carnegie Mellon Portugal Programme (CMU Portugal)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCMU Portugal is a strategic research partnership for large-scale collaborative projects. NOVA Cidade participates in the Bee2WasteCrypto project under this programme, which focuses on blockchain-based waste management solutions using data science for optimal decentralized waste management.
• C-Tech (Climate Driven Technologies for Low Carbon Cities) ConsortiumflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-institution R&D project led by NOS with 5 partner entities including NOVA Cidade. Develops a 3D smart city platform combining climate, energy, mobility, and user behavior data for urban energy efficiency simulation. MIT researchers from the Sustainable Design Lab and Trancik Lab are directly involved.
• CityCatalyst ConsortiumflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsortium of 11 companies and 11 non-business entities developing urban ecosystem solutions for smart and sustainable cities. NOVA Cidade serves as a research partner alongside EFACEC, Altice Labs, NOS, Porto Digital, Porto Business School, Fraunhofer Portugal, INESC TEC, and others. Focus areas include infrastructure, privacy, security, mobility, governance, and energy.
• KU Leuven (Belgium)importantStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic partner in the NextCity project focused on urban digital twins. NextCity aims to strengthen NOVA IMS's scientific and technological excellence in urban digital twins across all development phases: data collection and integration; analysis, prediction and simulation; data visualization; and data governance.
• Universitat Jaume I (Spain)importantStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic partner in the NextCity project for urban digital twins. Joint research collaboration with strategic investigation approach to increase NOVA IMS's research profile and excellence, with knowledge valorization through collaborative research initiatives.
• Centre for Gender and Equality - University of Stavanger (Norway)importantStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational partner in the Oeste + Igual project, promoting gender equality and work-life balance policies in the OesteCIM region. Partner shares experience and best practices from Norway to inform effective gender equality policies for the Portuguese intermunicipal community.
• ISEL - Instituto Superior de Engenharia de LisboacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in the Dados ao Serviço de Lisboa protocol alongside CML and NOVA IMS. ISEL contributes expertise in network and information systems design, data management, and knowledge discovery. Also partner in the PLANO-A-SAÚDE-C19 telehealth platform.
• Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de LisboacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLisbon Fire Brigade is a key operational partner in the LxAnalytics Hub project, providing historical incident data, operational requirements, and real-world deployment context for predictive models that optimize fire unit positioning to reduce response times.
• Junta de Freguesia de CampolideimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal parish partner for the Sensing Campolide project, implementing environmental education and citizen science initiatives using IoT, data science, and analytics to monitor air quality, water quality, and noise in the Campolide neighborhood.
• OesteCIM - Comunidade Intermunicipal do OestecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey intermunicipal partner for multiple projects including Smart Region (integrated territorial analytics platform), AIVENTS (LLM-based event decision support), Oeste + Igual (gender equality), and Oeste + Recicla (deposit return system). OesteCIM represents multiple municipalities in western Portugal.
• LPN - Liga para a Proteção da NaturezaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNature protection league partner in the Sensing Campolide environmental monitoring project, contributing environmental expertise and citizen science capabilities.
• EMEL (Lisbon Municipal Parking and Mobility Company)importantTechnology or IntegrationEMEL provides open data on bike dock occupation (GIRA bike sharing service) and traffic data used in multiple analytical projects including mobility dashboards and bike count analysis.
• AICEP Portugal GlobalimportantGTM or Marketing PartnerPortuguese trade and investment agency collaborating on the Portugal Smart Nation initiative at the Smart City Expo World Congress, promoting Portuguese smart city solutions and municipalities in international markets.
• Cluster Smart Cities PortugalimportantGTM or Marketing PartnerPortuguese smart cities industry cluster partner in the Portugal Smart Nation initiative for international visibility and promotion of Portuguese companies and municipalities at global smart city events.
• Fórum OceanoflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead partner in the Portugal Blue Digital Hub (PBDH) project, a consortium of 17 organizations plus a supplier club of 30+ entities. NOVA Cidade participates in this PRR-funded project promoting digital and environmental transition in the Blue Economy using AI, Blockchain, and Big Data through the Bluetech Testing Network.
• CCDR AlgarveimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlgarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission leads the Região Inteligente Algarve (RIA) project with NOVA Cidade as a research partner, alongside the University of Algarve, Algarve Tourism Board, and CIM Algarve.
• Porto DigitalimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerPorto Digital is a partner in the CityCatalyst consortium and a collaborator on the Urban Dynamic Indicator project for the Porto Municipality, bringing expertise in urban innovation and digital transformation for northern Portugal.
• Instituto HidrográficoflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPortuguese Hydrographic Institute is the operational partner for the MarIA project, developing a national ocean data governance model and AI platform for the maritime sector, leveraging existing data infrastructure, IoT systems, and operational platforms.
• Direção-Geral do Território (DGT)importantStrategic or Co-development PartnerDirectorate-General for Territory is a key partner in the Point DGT (forestry geographic database) and i-Território (intelligent access to general interest services) projects, supporting national territorial planning and management.
• AMA - Agência para a Modernização AdministrativaimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgency for Administrative Modernization is a funding and strategic partner through the SAMA2020 programme (Public Administration Modernisation Support System), which co-funds multiple NOVA Cidade projects including the Municipalities+ Inteligentes initiative.
• NAACC - National Agency for Administrative City Construction (South Korea)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSouth Korean national agency for administrative city construction visited NOVA Cidade in December 2025 as part of a technical visit coordinated by André Barriguinha, alongside Lisboa E-Nova, exploring urban intelligence and smart city strategies.
• Microsoft PortugalimportantTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partner in the LxAnalytics Hub project, contributing technology infrastructure (Microsoft cloud) to support the fire brigade resource optimization platform developed by NOVA IMS data scientists.
• SAP PortugalimportantTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partner in the LxAnalytics Hub project, collaborating on the predictive analytics solution for Lisbon fire brigade unit positioning optimization.
• NOSflagshipTechnology or IntegrationLeading technology partner in the C-Tech project for climate-driven smart city technologies and in the Data4Covid platform. Also consortium partner in CityCatalyst. Contributes telecommunications and technology infrastructure to multiple urban data projects.
• Vodafone PortugalimportantTechnology or IntegrationMobile operator providing anonymized mobile device location data used across multiple projects including Lisbon mobility analysis, urban dynamics studies, and movement pattern analysis for urban planning and congestion management.
• Expresso (Impresa Comunicação)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerPartnership with Expresso newspaper for the 'Portugal Distante' (Distant Portugal) series of journalistic reports on geospatial access to essential services, published December 2025 - January 2026, developed in collaboration with NOVA Cidade researchers.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Lisboa E-Nova: Lisbon-based energy and environment agency partnering with NOVA Cidade (e.g., NAACC technical visit coordination). Comparable as a Lisbon-region public-interest organization addressing urban sustainability, though more narrowly focused on energy/environment than urban analytics broadly.

Direct peers

• Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), UCL: University-based research lab at UCL applying data science, GIS, and urban analytics to city planning—closely mirrors NOVA Cidade's academic-research-meets-municipal-applications model and serves as a direct functional peer.
• MIT Senseable City Lab: MIT research lab using data science, sensors, and AI to study urban environments. Already a partner via MIT Portugal C-Tech project; comparable in combining academic urban analytics research with applied municipal use cases.
• INESC TEC: Portuguese private non-profit research institute with applied R&D across multiple domains including urban systems. Partner in several NOVA Cidade initiatives (e.g., CityCatalyst); directly comparable as a Portuguese R&D consortium addressing public-sector innovation.
• AIT Austrian Institute of Technology: Public applied research organization with urban mobility, digital twin, and smart city programs. Comparable as a publicly funded European research institute delivering urban analytics and digital twin solutions to municipal clients.
• Politecnico di Milano - Smart City Lab: Italian university research center focused on smart city data analytics and urban intelligence. Comparable as a university-anchored urban analytics lab working with municipalities on data-driven governance.
• Future Cities Laboratory (ETH Zürich / EPFL): Research lab focused on urban digital twins and sustainable city modeling at ETH Zürich. Directly comparable as a university-affiliated lab developing digital twin and urban simulation capabilities similar to NOVA Cidade's NextCity project.
• Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS: Portuguese applied research institute (Fraunhofer affiliate) collaborating with NOVA Cidade in CityCatalyst and other urban data projects. Comparable as a Portuguese research organization applying data science to municipal and industrial challenges.

Broad incumbents

• Esri: Global GIS platform provider widely used by Portuguese municipalities (the IVDP Data+ platform runs on ArcGIS Hub). Broader incumbent serving overlapping municipal GIS and spatial analytics needs but at a far larger commercial scale.
• Telefónica Smart Cities: Telecommunications incumbent offering smart city platforms and IoT-enabled municipal solutions across Iberia and globally. Represents the kind of large-scale commercial competitor Portuguese municipalities may turn to as smart city procurement matures.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/novacidade
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCDUwp4gGaQYjSDZjy8v4-jQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/novacidadeurbananalyticslab
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nova-cidade-urban-analytics-lab
• Instagraminstagram.com/NovaCidade_UrbanAnalyticsLab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about NOVA Cidade - Urban Analytics Lab