The ILLUMINATE project will assess SSL applicability and benefit as in high quality urban areas and in buildings hosting expositions and museums when light quality is un uncompromising requirement and SSL use is still problematic. By exploiting innovative lighting solutions and their integration with intelligent control systems and different innovative use of lighting as permitted by SSL (colour, shape, dimming) the project will develop a general approach to overcome obstacles hampering SSL application in the addressed scenario and will deliver and assess a wide range of solutions, standards and pilots suitable to be customised and tailored for indoor and outdoor scenarios.ILLUMINATE builds up a network of exposition buildings and cities in Europe in order to apply and assess benefit of SSL technology in a wide range of scenarios and promote replication beyond the project boundary. Two pilots in valuable areas of large EU cities and five pilots in selected exposition buildings are developed taking into account their special needs and aiming to produce large visibility and consensus among citizens and visitors.The project consortium is driven by end users (exposition buildings and cities) and includes a pool of experts covering all the aspects related to SSL value chain. Six EU countries are involved. Architects and lighting designers in collaboration with ICT providers, energy savings experts and lighting industry will develop models and guidelines for pilots development. ICT providers, designers, lighting's industry will support end users in every installation.Partners able to activate wide replication through a large contact network are included as well. Project result and achievement will be disseminated for promoting replication to public bodies, expert networks, non technical citizens, companies and organizations, in collaboration with end users and energy agencies associations, cities networks, exposition buildings and museums in Europe.