The SMART City concept is primarily associated with the European Union's goals and strategies in the upcoming period and it is introduced in detail in the strategic EU document Europe 2020. The article describes the SMART Region concept being implemented in the Czech Republic environment. It introduces a pilot project in the city of Brno district - Novy Liskovec in the Czech Republic and its transformation from a prefabricated housing estate from the 1980s through energy efficient renovation of the entire city district towards a SMART City concept vision. The energy refurbishment concepts and strategies applied to the city district together with real post occupancy operation data of a reference prefabricated block of flats are summarized. The current research activities related to the indoor climate in the prefabricated block of flats and energy efficiency of the whole city district region are further specified. The future research tasks, municipality visions, and targets to become a SMART Region city district are discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.