Together with the European Commission’s iCapital team, EUROCITIES is organising a webinar to inform and discuss about the European Capital of Innovation Award – also known as iCapital. The contest rewards the European cities which have better demonstrated their ability to take advantage of innovative to enhance of citizens.
26 April 2018, from 14:00 to 15:00
Objectives of the webinar are :
- Present rational and dynamics of the 2018 iCapital award
- Listen to previous iCapital prize winners about their journey to success, including their motivation to apply, how they approached the contest criteria as well as practical tips and tricks
- Open the floor for questions
Registration for the webinar is open until 25 April.
Visit EUROCITIES website: http://bit.ly/2vv86d7
The contest will award €1 million to the city named European Innovation Capital of the year. Each one of the five runner-up cities will receive €100,000.
The iCapital award is open to cities with a population above 100,000 inhabitants. In countries where there are no such city, the biggest city is eligible.
Deadline for application: 21 June 2018
More information on the European Commission website
The eafip network of lawyers offers free assistance in the preparation and implementation of a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) or public procurement of innovative solutions (PPI). The assistance is financed by the European Commission, and comes at no charge to you. In particular, the eafip assistance can support you with :
- Scoping identified procurement needs that can be tackled with innovative solutions;
- Preparing and conducting an EU-wide published open market consultation;
- Drafting tendering documents;
- Launching an EU-wide published call for tender
Deadline: 15 November 2017 at 5:00 P.M (Brussels-time)
Go directly to the application form
or Find out more about the eafip Assistance
The eafip initiative has so far provided Assistance to seven success stories across the EU:
- Het Waterschapshuis (the Netherlands) with inter alia a change in the procurement strategy and the set-up of a market consultation
- Eurail Group Europe (the Netherlands) with support in the selection of tenders and the implementation of a negotiated procedure
- Department of Mobility and Public Works, Maritime Access division (Belgium) with procurement strategy, stakeholder approach and other aspects
- Gijon Impulsa Empresas – Asturias (Spain) including improvements brought to their business case and the preparation of market consultation
- Agency for Innovation, financing and development of enterprises – ADE in the Castilla y Leon Region (Spain) covering their procurement strategy and stakeholder approach
- Canal de Isabel II – (Spain) including support in the preparation phase including an open market consultation
- Dutch Ministry of Defense (the Netherlands) with best practices for innovation procurement, the development of a business case and contract management.
You too can be one of the public procurers to benefit from the eafip Assistance!
Fill-in the application form now for a chance to be supported with your PCP / PPI project. The deadline is 5pm (Brussels-time) on 15th November 2017
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us or sign-up for updates.
If you are interested in conducting an innovation procurement and want to know more about it, the eafip Toolkit is the perfect guide to innovation procurement for policy makers, public procurers and legal services.

Iordana Eleftheriadou, Policy coordinator for Digital Transformation, alongside the First VP of the Committee of the Regions, Markku Markkula, at the launch of the Digital Cities Challenge
Launched at the European Week of Regions and Cities, the Commission Digital Cities Challenge is throwing down the gauntlet to city leaders and key stakeholders to make their cities more productive, more innovative, better places to live. They can do so by putting advanced technologies at the service of the citizens.
The challenge aims to select 15 cities with the will to change and unlock unreleased potential, to receive free-of-charge high quality policy advice, coaching and facilitation, from high-level experts with local and international experience. This tailored support will help them to develop and implement strategic plans addressing economic growth and social welfare, all in their local language.
Participating cities will also have access to intuitive assessment tools for digitalisation, innovative training, and a vast networking pool, including fellow cities, strategic stakeholders and Commission networks and platforms. This will help cities stimulate investments through joint cross-regional actions for digital transformation.
In addition to the selected 15 cities, the challenge will support a broader community of cities who wish to participate using their own resources and benefit from the knowledge and networking opportunities provided.
The result will be to give cities a well-developed strategy and action plan to move towards digital transformation and put them on the map as a beacon for future economic growth and improved quality of life.
The call is now open for applications.
To find out more about the Digital Cities Challenge and the call visit www.digitallytransformyourregion.eu
The Digital Cities Challenge is funded by COSME programme of the European Union. COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)