Nourishing smart city solutions: Data collaboration and food policy

This research brief explores the issue of data collaboration among local community partners, drawing lessons from efforts to address food insecurity during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal. The pandemic underlined the critical role of local governments and grassroots organizations in rapidly responding to complex economic and social challenges, which requires collaboration across a wide range of actors with varying degrees of knowledge and capacity to meet local community needs. 

This research brief identifies critical considerations for how open smart city principles can be applied in data collaboration to identify community needs, foster trust and engagement among actors and drive forward potential solutions.

This is part of a series of Community Solutions Network Research Briefs, commissioned by Open North to provide insight into how data and technology intersect with challenges local communities are grappling with. The issue briefings identify complex policy issues from an open smart city lens, describe their importance and provide key considerations for policymakers and practitioners.