The City of Tampere is among the finalists of the European Capital of Innovation Award 2017
Ten cities using the most innovative ideas to improve quality of life and to involve citizens in community life have reached the final stage of the European Capital of Innovation Award 2017. The City of Tampere has made it to this final stage. The other finalists are Aarhus, Berlin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Nice, Paris, Tallinn, Tel Aviv and Toulouse. 32 cities applied to the competition. The winners will be announced on 7 November.
- Being ranked among the top ten European innovation cities is an important recognition for Tampere, for our knowhow and our co-creation approach in developing a smart and sustainable city. I’m confident that Tampere has good chances of winning the whole competition, says the mayor of Tampere, Mr. Lauri Lyly.
The winning city must show how they have improved the quality of life in the community by experimenting with innovative concepts, processes, tools, and governance models as a test-bed for innovation, engaging citizens in the innovation process and ensuring the uptake of their ideas, expanding the city's attractiveness to become a role model for other cities and empowering the local ecosystem through the implementation of innovative practices. The winners’ innovation activities are based on the interaction between different stakeholders from citizens to public and private sector and beyond.
The city of Tampere participated in the competition with a proposal called Grow.Smart.Together. It presents the city’s innovation platforms and activities through the example of Hiedanranta district and its development. It offers a great example of how citizens, companies, universities, communities and city administration develop - co-create - the city together.
- We emphasize Hiedanranta as a completely new type of smart and human-centred development environment for urban development and services. We describe the co-creation model - how citizens and communities themselves are creating new activities and through them new services and jobs, say Director Hannele Räikkönen from Tampere EU Office and Director Esa Kokkonen from Baltic Institute of Finland, responsible for the application.
The European Capital of Innovation 2017 award and a prize of €1 million to scale up innovation activities will go to the city presenting the best innovation ecosystem, with two runners-up to receive a prize of €100 000 each.
Barcelona won the European Capital of Innovation competition in 2014 and Amsterdam in 2016.
http://www.tampere.fi/en/city-of-tampere/info/current-issues/2017/09/01092017_1.html
Tampere application website
European Commission press release 29.8.2017