World’s Most Innovative Cities Named: 6 iCapital Award Winners

The award annually recognizes cities’ innovative initiatives to address social challenges that engage and empower their citizens. The presentation took place on September 24 in Brussels, Belgium, by EU Commissioner Maria Gabriel during the Days of Research and Innovation, says horizon-magazine.

“We are delighted to receive the reward. Our city is a model that shows ‘the way forward to Europe.’ We are committed to making a just transition towards climate neutrality,” – said Mayor of Leuven Mohamed Riduani.

In addition, a group of independent experts named five cities that came in second place and received a cash prize of 100,000 euros each:

• Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
• Espoo, Finland;
• Helsingborg, Sweden;
• Valencia, Spain;
• Vienna, Austria.

Leuven, Belgium

The Belgian city of Leuven boasts one of the best universities in the world. The city, which is a renowned research and development center, brings together residents, city officials, researchers and entrepreneurs to innovate and put into practice solutions to modern challenges. These challenges include the transition to a circular economy, climate change, and high levels of education and health care. In the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, Leuven strives to be resilient and fair. Thus, in 2019, Leuven developed a roadmap with 13 programs for a climate-neutral future. The city aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Cluj-Napoca is one of the most important centers of innovation in Romania. Cluj-Napoca launched the Com’On Cluj-Napoca internet platform to encourage young people to propose group initiatives to improve community life in the city, such as creating reading spaces in public spaces and a philosophy learning platform for children.

Interestingly, the project proposed on the platform by the students of Onesiphor Gibu High School resulted in a tactile panorama of the historic center. It allows blind or visually impaired people to feel the city.

Espoo, Finland

The second-largest city in Finland hosts the largest ecosystem of innovation and technology in northern Europe, and implements solutions and technologies that reduce CO2 emissions. These innovations focus on making Espoo more resilient to the effects of climate change. The city is focused on the transition to clean energy for transportation and home heating. Espoo strives to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2025 and become carbon neutral by 2030.

His experiments with mobility as a service that brings together different modes of transportation for efficient, bespoke travel brought residents together for testing and feedback. Espoo also unveiled its first all-weather self-driving bus in collaboration with the local council and Finnish companies Sensible4 and Nokia, hoping to widely launch self-driving buses in the future.

Vienna, Austria

Vienna – the capital of Austria – puts young people at the center of its development strategy to improve living standards. In 2019, the city launched the Werkstadt junges Wien project, which attracted more than 22,000 residents between the ages of four and 19.

Valencia, Spain

Through its Missions València 2030 strategy, the city has the goal of being resilient, entrepreneurial, healthy and improving collective well-being over the next decade. These changes can help eliminate energy poverty, overcome loneliness and reduce 90 percent of the plastic and microplastics found in the sea, rivers and nature reserves.

Valencia Mayor Joan Ribot said the Valencia 2030 Missions will also be critical to recovery from the coronavirus crisis and prioritize investments in health, environment, education and employment.

Helsingborg, Sweden

Helsingborg is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, which sees investment in innovation as a way to tackle recent challenges such as growing aging and youth versus the number of people of working age who pay taxes.

In 2019, the city launched its H22 initiative with an investment of nearly 25 million euros over a period of two years to 2022. The city creates people-driven welfare solutions by collaborating with residents, academia and associations.