and the validity as well as availability of the indicators. Organisation of OPENCities OPENCities is a British Council project. The European Union (EU), funded an URBACT project, led by Belfast City Council, with the following partners Bilbao, Bucharest, Cardiff, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Nitra, Poznań, Sofia and Vienna. Outside URBACT, other cities have been active partners (Madrid, Cardiff) and collaborators (Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham). Besides, others have been included in the OPENCities Monitor and participated in different ways: London, Toronto, São Paulo, Auckland, Barcelona, Beijing, Belfast, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chongqing, Los Angeles and New York. The Story of OPENCities The story of OPENCities started in 2008 with the fundamental work of Greg Clark “Towards OPEN Cities” showcasing the importance of openness as a location factor, the trends in demographic changes in cities, the opportunities that measurement and benchmarking of openness could present and initial policy recommendations. Since 2008, OPENCities moved forward as follows: April 2008 – OPENCities selected to receive URBACT funding. March 2009 - End 2010 – Elaboration of local action plans by URBACT partner cities, implementation of cultural activities in cities, dissemination of project outcomes. April 2008 - Mid 2009 – Feasibility study conducted by BAK Economics, stating that openness can be measured through internationally comparable indicators. Mid 2009-Oct 2010 – Investigation, research, case studies, OPENCities Monitor, available to international cities. End 2010 – International recognition of the importance of openness for cities international success and competitiveness. Jan/Feb 2011 – Launch of OPENCities Monitor. The OPENCities Monitor The OPENCities Monitor developed by BAK Economics currently displays and demonstrates the results of 26 cities worldwide, compares their performance in several ways and gives further policy recommendations. An extended city-sample is up-coming in 2012. It is planned to include more than 100 cities in the OPENCities Monitor. Cities currently included are Auckland, Barcelona, Beijing, Belfast, Bilbao, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Cardiff, Chongqing, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Manchester, New York City, Nitra, Newcastle, Nottingham, Poznań, São Paulo, Sofia, Toronto and Vienna. Target groups of OPENCities The target group of OPENCities are local policy leaders. OPENCities introduced openness as the focus in which to base local action plans, centred in three areas: Internationalisation Leadership and Governance Migration management The OPENCities project supports their implementation and development. City leaders get access to relevant city data, can benchmark their results and obtain recommendations to improve their policies. The project highlights that