The European Commission believes in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth towards Europe 2020. Regions are encouraged to define a research and innovation strategy for smart specialization. In the case of the Basque Country, this “Science, Technology and Innovation PCTI Euskadi 2020” plan was prepared in 2014.  Since then, the strategy is under implementation and workgroups are monitoring each strategic priority topic . As such, urban habitat and sustainable construction is in focus.
 
On April 15th 2016 key projects around urban habitat and sustainable construction were presented in Bilbao in the event “Towards Europe 2020: smart specialization in urban habitat and sustainable construction in Euskadi”. Dr. Iñigo Vegas from TECNALIA presented H2020 HISER project and explained the solutions that will be developed within the project framework.