LISBON WON THE TITLE OF THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF INNOVATION 2023

Lisbon has won the title of European Capital of Innovation (iCapital). This prize is awarded annually to European cities that actively use innovation in their work.

The capital of Portugal won the award thanks to its large-scale Unicorn Factory initiative. In just two years, she managed to attract 54 technology centers from 23 countries to the city, create 10 thousand jobs and triple the number of startups. All this has helped Lisbon make progress in industries such as digital health, Web 3 technologies and artificial intelligence.

These developments help the city address current challenges in mobility, housing, healthcare and the environment. Specifically, to achieve carbon neutral status by 2030, the city launched a platform that brings together various companies and organizations developing advanced technologies in energy, water purification and recycling.

Lisbon will receive a prize of 1 million euros for further development.

In addition to the main category, this year the competition presented the “Growing Innovative City of Europe” award, aimed at cities with a population of 50 to 249 thousand inhabitants. The prize in this category went to the city of Linköping (Sweden). The city will receive 500 thousand euros as a reward.

Barcelona became the first European Capital of Innovation in 2014. A city with a population of more than 250 thousand people from EU countries and countries associated with the European research and innovation support program Horizon Europe can claim this title.