Braga, the new European rising innovative city!
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15 Nov 2024
The city of Braga, where the University of Minho is based, was honoured this week as the ‘European Innovation Rising Innovative City’. The announcement was made by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Iliana Ivanova, at the 10th edition of the iCapital Awards 2024, during the Web Summit in Lisbon, European Capital of Innovation 2023.
This distinction recognizes Braga for developing a range of innovative solutions, from technology-based clusters to cultural and creative industries, and also for having a strong innovation ecosystem with a focus on collaboration and inclusion, in which the role of the University of Minho stands out and its networks, such as Arqus.
The other finalist cities in 2024 were Linz (Austria) and Oulu (Finland). Previous winners were Vantaa (Finland, 2021), Haarlem (Netherlands, 2022) and Linköping (Sweden, 2023).
The prize is worth 500,000 euros and is supported by the European Innovation Council under the Horizon Europe Program. This initiative aims to highlight the transformative role of cities, in line with the New European Innovation Agenda.
For the Mayor of Braga, Ricardo Rio, this European award ‘is due to the joint work with the academic community, companies and the public sector’. On the other hand, it makes this Portuguese city ‘more attractive for attracting investment, talent and new international partnerships’.
Braga has now joined the European Innovation Council Forum group, made up of former iCapital Awards finalists. This network of pioneering cities enables ongoing collaboration in sharing good practices and new solutions to meet the urban challenges of the present and the future.
