Lisbon gets the European Capital of Innovation award for 2023

Linköping (Sweden) wins in the European Rising Innovative City category

At the start of this week, the European Commission handed out the awards for the most innovative cities in the bloc at a ceremony in Marseille (France), which was the winner of last year’s edition.

Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, was there to award Lisbon as the European Capital of Innovation (iCapital) for 2023. In the second important category – European Rising Innovative City – it was Linköping (Sweden) that snatched the prize.

This event was part of the opening for the Aix Marseille Provence Metropole (AMP) innovation week, and it included the conference “Share the future” and the awards ceremony for the Prix des possibles, organised by AMP and inspired by the iCapital awards, to support local innovators. 

The reasons to distinguish Lisbon and Linköping

Commissioner Ivanova congratulated the two winning cities for their pioneering approaches to reshaping the urban environment and tackling demographic and economic challenges while keeping the best interests of their residents in mind.

Lisbon won the award (and 1 million euros) thanks to its Unicorn Factory initiative on a grand scale. In just two years, Unicorn Factory managed to attract 54 new technology centres from 23 countries, created 10,000 jobs, launched 13 incubation and acceleration programs, tripled the number of incubated start-ups and positioned the city in industries as distinct as digital health, Web 3.0 technologies and artificial intelligence.

As the winner of the European Rising Innovative City category, Linköping received 500,000 euros to continue investing in and developing the city's innovative solutions to social and sustainability challenges. In addition, the international spotlight is directed at Linköping, and the city can count on many interested visitors in the future.