The City of Espoo won second place in the European Commission's Capital of Innovation Awards 2024 (iCapital) at the award ceremony held at the Web Summit event in Lisbon, Portugal, on 13 November. Espoo has now reached second place in back-to-back iCapital Awards.
Espoo was selected as Europe's second city of innovation in the European Commission's Capital of Innovation Awards 2024. Espoo has now reached second place both in the 2022 and 2024 iCapital Awards and is the highest-placed Finnish city in the competition's history. Turin, Italy, took the top spot, and the UK's West Midlands Combined Authority came third.
Collaborative culture of innovation
Espoo's success in the competition highlights the city's emphasis on creating a hopeful future for youth and fostering a thriving innovation ecosystem through collaboration. The city's cooperation with key players like Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has been pivotal in driving sustainable innovation and solutions the world needs.
Espoo's Mayor Jukka Mäkelä praised the city's unique innovation culture, where collaboration among stakeholders leads to concrete economic and societal benefits. Similarly, both Antti Vasara, President and CEO of VTT, and Ilkka Niemelä, President of Aalto University, attributed long-term collaboration as the reason for Espoo's successful innovation culture.
Shaping a sustainable European innovation culture
Espoo is the centre of innovation and economic development in Finland. Espoo accounts for sixty per cent of Finland's patent applications while ranking sixth in patents among European cities. Almost half of the Helsinki Stock Exchange's turnover comes from Espoo-based companies. The city also plays a vital role in creating a sustainable Finnish startup culture, with over ninety-five per cent of investments in Espoo-based startups aligning with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The Aalto University campus is a cornerstone of this ecosystem, generating about a hundred new companies annually, with a combined value exceeding thirty billion euros.
Espoo's recognition as a European innovation capital highlights the city's role as a leader in Finland's sustainable economic growth and a model for sustainable innovation in Europe. The achievement not only showcases the city's ability to scale innovations and attract global attention but also exemplifies Finland's competitiveness in shaping an impactful, future-oriented European innovation culture.
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Note: Generative AI was used to write this article.