Ten European cities using the most innovative ideas to improve quality of life and to involve citizens in community life are now shortlisted for the European Capital of Innovation Award 2017.

The European Capital of Innovation Award 2017 and a prize of EUR 1 million to scale up innovation activities will go to the city presenting the best innovation ecosystem. Two runners-up will receive a prize of EUR 100,000 each.

"The tough competition this year proved how vibrant our local innovation ecosystems are. The journey so far has been very exciting, and the best is yet to come. I am looking forward to announcing the winners in November and further cooperating with them,"  Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said.

The winners will be announced on 7 November at the Lisbon Web Summit.

Meet the 10 finalists:
•    Copenhagen (DK) – for its "Transformative Living Lab" approach, which encourages citizens and entrepreneurs to take part in a network of experimental laboratories.
•    Aarhus (DK) – for giving citizens more responsibilities in creating social welfare and creating physical labs for innovation.
•    Berlin (DE) – for its shared approach to governance, allowing the city boroughs to experiment in several domains, from social innovation to logistics and green supply chains.
•    Helsinki (FI) – for its world-class education and IT culture that fosters innovative collaborations among citizens and institutions to jointly tackle urban challenges such as air quality, maritime technology and health-tech.
•    Nice (FR) – for its Smart City strategy that offers citizens to engage via the city Innovation Centre in decisions on climate change, healthy ageing, environmental risk and security innovation.
•    Paris (FR) – for its mission to turn into a "FabCity" hosting the largest start-up campus in the world, which encourages innovative projects by citizens and entrepreneurs.
•    Tallinn (EE) – for becoming a model of a true "eCity" by digitalising all the city services.
•    Tampere (FI) – for its "Grow.Smart.Together" urban development program, where citizens, universities and businesses are involved in creating smart urban solutions fostering new jobs in the city.
•    Tel Aviv (IL) – for its impressive hi-tech sector programmes and city policies, leading to the highest concentration of accelerator programs in Europe.
•    Toulouse (FR) – for its Open Metropolis strategy, a participatory governance model allowing citizens and business organisations to co-design major urban local initiatives.

Source: www.copcap.com
Photo: KIM Wyon/VisitDenmark.com