From 1 to 7 February, the National Research Council of Italy’s Institute for Applied Mathematics and Information Technologies (CNR-IMATI) in Genoa hosted the institutional visit of Takehiko Nagumo, Representative Director of the Smart City Institute of Tokyo. The week featured a series of meetings, workshops and lectures devoted to the theme of urban well-being. The initiative strengthened scientific dialogue between the CNR and the RAISE – Robotics and AI for Socioeconomic Empowerment ecosystem, with a specific focus on the activities of Spoke 1, which develops models, indicators and tools for the “well-being city.”
Professor Nagumo teaches at several Japanese universities, serves as a panel member of the UN-Habitat Global Quality of Life Initiative, and founded the Smart City Institute of Tokyo. The institute is a national reference hub bringing together more than 800 partners, including companies, start-ups, public institutions, universities, research centres and civil society organisations. In his role as Representative Director of SCI, Nagumo initiated in Genoa an in-depth exchange on the theme of urban well-being, an area in which the institute develops major projects at the national level.
The idea for the visit took shape during the participation of RAISE in the Smart City Expo World Congress held in Barcelona from 4 to 6 November 2025. On that occasion, Michela Spagnuolo, Director of CNR-IMATI, had the opportunity to learn more about SCI’s activities and sparked Professor Nagumo’s interest in the research initiatives promoted within RAISE. From this initial exchange, a structured programme emerged that involved CNR researchers in a series of individual discussions throughout the week.
On 4 February, CNR-IMATI organised a workshop open to RAISE Spoke 1 participants. Michela Spagnuolo opened the event, followed by a presentation of the results of Task 1.1 on urban well-being indicators by Carlos Beltran. Professor Nagumo then presented the experience of the Smart City Institute in a talk titled “Human-Centred Urban Design: not just Smart but a Well-Being City,” offering reflections on urban design focused on quality of life. The concluding discussion brought together different approaches and methodologies, opening new perspectives for scientific collaboration. During the day, documentary filmmakers from BLUM!, commissioned by CNR-IMATI, interviewed Professor Nagumo for a documentary dedicated to the activities and results of RAISE Spoke 1.
On 5 February the institute hosted an internal workshop dedicated to the concept of the Well-Being City. The following day, Professor Nagumo delivered a lecture within the postgraduate programme “Designing the Smart City” at the Department of Economics of the University of Genoa, engaging students and faculty in an international discussion on models of urban development.
The visit also provided an opportunity to explore the results of the Japanese project Liveable Wellbeing City Indicators, the first national index dedicated to urban well-being and quality of life. The framework combines objective data—useful for assessing the efficiency and quality of urban services—with subjective data collected through targeted surveys to measure people’s perceptions of happiness and satisfaction. The analyses reveal significant gaps between these two dimensions, highlighting how technology acts as an enabling factor that nonetheless requires a broader vision to generate overall well-being.
Against this backdrop, Spoke 1 strengthened a platform for international dialogue that may support new shared research trajectories. The week in Genoa thus laid the foundations for structured cooperation between the National Research Council of Italy, RAISE and the Smart City Institute, with the aim of developing innovative models for the well-being city.
