Smart City and Smart Port Concepts: A Conceptualisation for Digital Small and Medium-Sized Port-City Innovation Ecosystems

European ports are facing high political pressure through the implementation of initiatives, such as the European Green Deal or IMO’s 2030 targets (Fit for 55). However, Small and Medium-Sized Ports (SMSPs) face even higher challenges compared to bigger ones due to lower capacities in various fields such as investments, infrastructure, Human Resources (HR) and funding opportunities. Role of SMSPs is various depending on their specific functionality in maritime ecosystems. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the own strategic position and apply management strategies for a successful sustainable and digital transformation in the context the regional growth on the one hand, and innovation strategies for diversification or specialisation of own port businesses on the other one. With this aim in hand, the authors designed and have been co-funded in June 2023 the cross-border EU project focusing on energy transition in SMSPs across the South Baltic Area (SBA), thus paving the way to sustainable and digital transformation on regional and macro-regional level. The research uses inductive perspectives to set up a transferable framework in port-city ecosystems on regional level, which could facilitate green energy transition in SMSPs. The design of the synergetic concept for port-city innovation ecosystem for energy transition builds upon the identified interactions and interface between SMSPs and cities in the context of energy transition. The data was collected during the project design phase and is underpinned by deployed SMSPs use case scenarios and backed- up by expert interviews collected during the project preparation phase.