Dortmund has won the European Capital of Innovation award for 2021, with Dublin and Malaga coming in at joint second place.There were a total of 39 applications for the award. The awards recognise cities' long-term efforts to create an environment that enables and embraces innovation.

Dortmund will receive a cash prize of €1 million, while the two runners-up are rewarded with €100,000 each (Dublin and Malaga will share the prize). 

At the European Innovation Council Summit, which took place in Brussels recently, the commission announced the winners of the seventh edition of the European Capital of Innovation Awards (‘iCapital'). The city of Dortmund in Germany is the European Capital of Innovation 2021 and the city of Vantaa in Finland is the European Rising Innovative City.

'Real test beds for innovation'

Following an intense evaluation process, two high-level juries of independent experts selected the winners and runners-up in the two prize categories. The second place in the European Capital of Innovation category is endowed to Dublin in Ireland and to Malaga in Spain. Vilnius in Lithuania is awarded the third place. Cascais in Portugal and Trondheim in Norway are granted the second and third places in the European Rising Innovative City category.

Mariya Gabriel, commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said: “I am impressed by the outstanding work of all iCapital finalist cities. I am honoured to highlight these cities that are the real test beds for innovation. They co-create bottom-up initiatives to achieve more sustainable urban development.”

These awards recognise the cities' long-term efforts to create an environment that enables and embraces innovation. The cities have developed and deployed innovative concepts, putting in place the processes, tools and governance models to achieve excellent results. They could serve as strong examples for cities in Europe and beyond that have been suffering from the pandemic and will need to embark on transformation.

In addition to the prestigious recognition, the European Capital of Innovation category winner will receive a cash prize of €1 million, while the two runners-up are rewarded with €100,000 each (Dublin and Malaga will share the prize). The winner of the European Rising Innovative City category will be awarded €500,000 with the two runners-up receiving €50,000 each.