{"id":321175,"date":"2021-11-29T15:07:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T14:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=321175"},"modified":"2021-11-29T15:07:40","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T14:07:40","slug":"technology-is-important-but-to-innovate-people-need-to-be-involved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/technology-is-important-but-to-innovate-people-need-to-be-involved\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology is important, but to innovate, people need to be involved"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Innovation is not all about technology. The cities of tomorrow need to implement social innovation too. The European Commission<\/a> is insisting on this aspect, as were the words of commissioner Mariya Gabriel<\/a> during the prize-giving ceremony of the European Capital of Innovation awards<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 24th of November the European Innovation Council (EIC)<\/a> – during the EIC Summit in Brussels <\/a>– revealed the 2021 winners of the competition. The Finnish city of Vantaa won the first edition of the European Rising Innovative City <\/em>award, receiving a \u20ac500.000 prize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition awards cities with 50,000 to 249,000 residents and their efforts to nurture innovation. The European Rising Innovative City prize is integrated with the European Capital Innovation Prize, which awards prizes to bigger cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored. It\u2019s surprising that we won, but Vantaa has developed so much over the past decades. This recognition means a lot to us, it hasn\u2019t been so easy to undergo all these changes,\u201d Vantaa\u2019s mayor Ritva Viljanen told Innovation Origins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carbon neutral by 2030<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Vantaa used to be a town with 40,000 people back in the 1960s, grew in the past decades to become the 4th biggest city in Finland with nearly 240,000 inhabitants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the city is growing fast, our emissions are not,\u201d Viljanen stated in her acceptance speech. Vantaa plans to be carbon-neutral by 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperation between different city actors is key in achieving such results. \u201cOur purpose is our people and we are doing this together with city associations and business partners\u201d, Viljanen notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ritva Viljanen – \u00a9 City of Vantaa

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Social innovation is the real innovation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The EIC jury assessed the candidates based on a variety of different criteria. For instance, cities had to show how they developed ecosystems capable of promoting innovation, how they helped local actors come up with novel operating models, and how they supported the growth of local businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this respect, social innovation played a huge role in the awards, as also the runner-up cities distinguished themselves with these kinds of initiatives.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Portuguese city of Cascais finished second, with initiatives such as the Smart City Academia<\/em>. Trondheim placed third, and both runners-up will receive a \u20ac 50,000 cash prize each. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People first<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Vantaa implemented several social innovation projects. Among these initiatives, there is the so-called Shared Table<\/em> model, which combines the use of food waste and communal food aid activities. Minimizing food waste is one of the goals, alongside improving the well-being and the agency of the recipients and distributors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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