Deadline: 15-Jul-21
Call for proposals for the European Capital of Innovation Awards.
Objectives
- Every year, the European Union recognises cities with inclusive innovation ecosystems by awarding the recognition prize European Capital of Innovation Awards.
- The awards identify urban ecosystems that connect citizens, the public sector, academia, and business, and successfully translate their results into improved wellbeing of their citizens, while boosting game-changing innovation.
- The award is part of the European Union’s efforts to raise awareness about the benefits of urban innovation ‘with’ and ‘for’ citizens, supporting cities in addressing relevant societal challenges, and strengthening their urban resilience.
Award Categories
- European Capital of Innovation 2021 category:
- 1 winner: the winner will be named the European Capital of Innovation 2021 and will receive a prize of one million EUR. The prize is dedicated to recognise the winning city’s innovative practices, raise its international profile, and enhance its capacity as a widely recognised role model city for urban innovation.
- 2 runners-up cities: top two cities (ranked 2 nd and 3rd) with the most disruptive innovation practices that lead to outstanding impact will be awarded each a prize of 100 000 EUR.
- European Rising Innovative City 2021 category:
- 1 winner: the winner will be named the European Rising Innovative City 2021 and will receive a prize of 500 000 EUR. The prize is dedicated to recognise the winning city’s innovative practices, raise its international profile, and enhance its capacity as a widely recognised role model city for urban innovation.
- 2 runners-up cities: top two cities (ranked 2 nd and 3rd) with the most disruptive innovation practices that lead to outstanding impact will be awarded a prize of 50 000 EUR.
Expected Impacts
- The traditional city innovation ecosystem is opening up to new models of innovation engaging citizens.
- An increasing number of cities are acting as test beds for innovation and run citizens-driven initiatives to find solutions for their relevant societal challenges.
- The public domain is particularly challenged with finding effective ways to ensure the mainstreaming of these practices into the ordinary urban development process.
- Successful practices are particularly crucial to enhance the city’s capacity to attract new resources, funds and talents to stimulate the growth of breakthrough innovations.
- Moreover, collaboration and strengthening synergies among innovation ecosystems boost cities’ development and resilience to tackle urban challenges.
- For this reason, the European Capital of Innovation Awards will recognize the cities’ role as catalysers of the local innovation ecosystem and will stimulate new activities aimed at boosting game-changing innovation.
Geographic location (target countries)
- Applications must relate to activities in an EU Member State or an Associated Country to Horizon Europe.
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible, the applicant cities must comply with all the following criteria:
- The candidate cities must be located in one of the EU Member States or Associated Countries to Horizon Europe.
- For the category of European Capital of Innovation, the candidate city must have a population of minimum 250 000 inhabitants. In countries where there are no such cities, the biggest cities are eligible and can only apply to a single category, provided that their population is of minimum 50 000 inhabitants.
- The candidate cities for the European Rising Innovative City category must have a population of 50 000 and up to 249,999 inhabitants.
- Winners of former European Capital of Innovation Awards editions, as well as runners-up of the edition organised one year prior to the current edition are not eligible. This does not apply to previous finalist cities.
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