Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, has been named the European Capital of Innovation 2023 by the European Commission. This prestigious title was awarded to Lisbon, after beating five other finalists, namely Istanbul (Turkey), Kyiv (Ukraine), Lviv (Ukraine), Warsaw (Poland), and Basaksehir (Turkey). As the winner, the city will receive a prize of €1 million to support its innovation activities and projects.
The European Capital of Innovation Awards, also known as iCapital, recognizes cities that promote inclusive and dynamic innovation ecosystems. These cities use innovation to improve the lives of their citizens and communities. The awards are supported by the European Innovation Council under Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation program.
Lisbon impressed the jury with its vision of becoming a “Unicorn Factory”. It aims to be a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship that attracts and nurtures talent, startups, and investors from all over the world. The city has demonstrated its ability to use innovation to address the challenges of urban mobility, sustainability, social inclusion, culture, and education.
Some of the initiatives that contributed to Lisbon’s success include:
- The Lisbon Green Capital 2023 program, which aims to make the city carbon-neutral by 2050. This program promotes renewable energy, green transport, circular economy, and urban agriculture.
- The Lisbon City Lab, which is a platform for co-creation and experimentation of innovative solutions for urban challenges. The platform involves citizens, researchers, companies, and public authorities.
- The Lisbon Digital School, which is a network of public schools that offer digital education and skills to students and teachers. The schools use cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, coding, and gamification.
- The Lisbon Startup City, which is a strategy to support the growth and internationalization of the local startup ecosystem. It provides access to funding, mentoring, networking, incubation, and acceleration programs. Lisbon also hosts major events such as the Web Summit and the Lisbon Investment Summit.
The mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, expressed his gratitude and pride for the recognition. He said that the city will continue to pursue its ambition of being a global leader in innovation. “We are capable of being the best in the world at many things. We have to tell people that we can. We can have an innovation capital for the world here. These unicorns that I speak of are that ambition”, he said.
The European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, congratulated Lisbon and the other finalists. She highlighted the role of cities in driving innovation and transforming society. “The iCapital awards recognize cities that excel in promoting their innovation ecosystems. These cities put the citizens and their well-being at the center of their innovative projects. They use innovation to positively transform people’s lives,” she said.
The other finalists of the iCapital awards also received prizes for their achievements. The European Rising Innovative City category, which addresses cities with a population of fewer than 250,000 inhabitants, was won by Cork (Ireland). The runners-up of the European Capital of Innovation category were Warsaw (Poland) and Lviv (Ukraine).
The iCapital awards ceremony took place on 27 November 2023 in Marseille (France) – the winner of the previous edition of the awards. The ceremony was part of the European Innovation Council Forum, a major event that brought together innovators, investors, policymakers, and stakeholders from the European innovation ecosystem.
Sources: eiturbanmobility.eu, bing.com, theportugalnews.com, eic.ec.europa.eu eic.ec.europa.eu, eic.ec.europa.eu, theportugalnews.com, euronews.com