The European Capital of Innovation Awards (iCapital) Alumni Network is meeting at Urban Future in Helsingborg during H22 City Expo to share their learnings and spark innovation across Europe.

What better way than to gather all the cities concerned with collaboration and innovation to drive progress? This is exactly what iCapital does when bringing together their Alumni Network at Urban Future for the very first time during the H22 City Expo in Helsingborg. iCapital is a prestigious European innovation award for cities, supported by the European innovation Council (EIC).

To get anywhere close to mastering the many urban challenges, innovation has become a critical discipline for cities. However, across Europe, cities are struggling. Innovation is a complex task: it’s interdisciplinary and it requires doing things differently – not really a strength for most city administrations, which often operate in departmental silos.

However, there is an increasing number of highly successful cities which have learnt to navigate and achieve innovation – the best of them compete for the European Innovation Council’s annual iCapital award. It is during UF22 and during the H22 City Expo that the iCapital Alumni Network, with its winners and runner ups, will be meeting for the very first time.

“Being part of the iCapital process in 2020 is something we still treasure and learn from. We are, of course, delighted to welcome all cities here to Helsingborg, Urban Future, and the H22 City Expo. These are cities we have a lot in common with and this network form the basis of a long-term relationship and cooperation,” says Ms Soraya Axelsson, Head of H22, City of Helsingborg,

On June 1, the session “Innovation Kick-starter for cities” will include an iCapital panel discussion, which will take a close look at the cities that have found a way to innovate and already do so quite successfully. It will explore how they did it, what needed to be changed, how they ultimately got started, and what role the iCapital competition played in their efforts.

This gives innovators the opportunity to fully harness the potential of innovation through informal discussion and help to foster the flow of information, knowledge, talent, and best practices among cities. The session is followed by the iCapital Alumni Network inaugural meeting in the afternoon.

Through iCapital, the European Union recognises cities with inclusive innovation ecosystems. The prize identifies cities that connect the general public with academia, businesses, and the public sector to successfully translate results into improved societal wellbeing, while at the same time boosting game-changing innovation.

KEY FACTS

Urban Future 2022 Helsingborg, Sweden | June 1-3, 2022
Meet more than 2,000 CityChangers. City planners, activists, architects, mayors, concerned citizens, and many more will join our amazing 3-day programme. Be inspired by the best, gain critical skills and know-how, and get to understand important trends.
www.urban-future.org

H22 City Expo
Europe's most innovative cities, and up to 100 official partners from the business sector, academia, and civil society will all be in town when Helsingborg invites the world to the H22 City Expo – a 35-day international event with over 700 programme features highlighting the role of innovation in shaping the smart and sustainable city of the future.
www.h22cityexpo.com

Alumni cities present
Paris, Leuven, Amsterdam, Malaga, Vantaa, Umeå, Dortmund, Cascais, Dublin, Helsingborg, Cluj-Napoca, Espoo, and Valencia.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has been established under the EU Horizon Europe programme. It has a budget of €10.1 billion to support game-changing innovations throughout the lifecycle, from early stage research, to proof of concept, technology transfer, and the financing and scaling up of start-ups and SMEs.
https://eic.ec.europa.eu

iCapital
The European Capital of Innovation Awards (iCapital) are supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC) under Horizon Europe.The prize first took place in 2014. Past winners include Barcelona (2014), Amsterdam (2016), Paris (2017), Athens (2018), Nantes (2019), Leuven (2020), and Dortmund (2021) as European Capitals of Innovation. In 2021, Vantaa was awarded the Rising Innovative City title through a new category introduced to reward the innovative practices implemented by smaller cities with a population of between 50,000 and 249,999 inhabitants.

Purpose of the Alumni Network

• Facilitate and promote dialogue exchange, knowledge sharing, and the replication of best practices.
• Raise the profile of its members as role models for European actors in their areas of expertise.
• Raise awareness and promote the use of innovation to positively transform society.
• Identify and better understand needs, opportunities, and mutual benefits for collaboration. Design tailor made strategies.
• Promote synergies and cross-border collaboration at EUZ, national, and regional levels.