Winners to be announced in November

The 12 semi-finalist cities for the 9th edition of the European Capital of Innovation Awards ( iCapital Awards) 2023 have been announced, and one of them is Portuguese: Lisbon City Council. The final winners will be announced in November at the awards ceremony in Marseille.

This award, supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC) under Horizon Europe, recognises the role cities play in developing the local innovation ecosystem and in promoting breakthrough innovation.

Running to become European Capital of Innovation 2023 are Başakşehir and Istanbul (Turkey), Kiev and Lviv (Ukraine) and Warsaw (Poland). For their part, Bruges (Belgium), Cork (Ireland), Leiden (Netherlands), Linköping (Sweden), Linz (Austria) and Padova (Italy) are the semi-finalists to become a European Rising Innovative City.

The winning city in the 'European Capital of Innovation' category, in addition to prestige, will receive a prize of 1 million euros, while the two runners-up in this category will receive 100,000 euros each. The winner of the 'European Rising Innovative City' category will receive 500,000 euros and the two runners-up will receive 50,000 euros each.

iCapital is promoted in Portugal by ANI, within the PERIN Network, a support network for national participation in European Commission initiatives that fund and promote research and innovation. Through this initiative, the European Union recognises cities with inclusive innovation ecosystems that connect the public with academia, businesses and the public sector in order to improve society's well-being.

See more information here.