An international call has been launched for projects oriented to the València Neutral City mission and to which the 100,000 euros that València won last year for being among the 6 finalist cities in the European Capital of Innovation will be allocated.
The rules of the call and how to apply can be found here.
Lanzadera and World Design Capital Valencia 2022 collaborate in this international call.
The València City Council, through the València Clima i Energia foundation and the innovation centre Las Naves, has launched this week an international call to find the project with the best impact on the innovation mission València Ciudad Neutra, first of the Missions València 2030 strategy.
On 9 June, València publicly presented the first València Neutral City mission, within the innovation strategy Missions València 2030, at an event in Las Naves. A mission that aims to have 3 climate neutral neighbourhoods or towns before 2030 by and for the citizens, as the European Commission is going to propose at the end of 2021 in its search for 100 European cities willing to accept the challenge of the transition to decarbonisation.
Through València Clima i Energia, the innovation centre Las Naves of the València City Council, and the rest of the Services and entities of the València City Council involved, the city will promote and deploy, together with the other 4 propellers of innovation, the necessary work to apply as a candidate to be one of the 100 cities selected within the European mission ‘100 neutral European cities before 2030 by (and for) citizens’, as approved by the Valencia City Council Plenary on 25 February with the backing of the municipal government (Compromís-PSPV), and PP and Ciudadanos on the opposition side.
The València City of Innovation Award of €100,000, whose call for applications has just opened, comes from the recognition that the European Commission gave to the city of Valencia in 2020 for being one of the 6 best innovative European cities thanks to its Missions València 2030 strategy. The €100,000 will go to the best innovation project presented in the city of Valencia that can demonstrate the greatest impact on the climate mission.
The call has an international scope, which means that projects from all over Europe that meet the requirements can be submitted. Moreover, to reinforce this international character, the City Council will count on the collaboration of entities such as World Design Capital Valencia 2022, ambassador organisation of Missions.
València 2030, and the Valencian business accelerator Lanzadera.
The councillor for Climate Emergency and Energy Transition of Valencia City Council, Alejandro Ramon, has highlighted “the figure of the innovative ecosystem as an essential agent of change in the city’s energy transition towards the social, renewable, efficient and decarbonised energy model that the council is committed to. The city already has innovative actions implemented in the fight against climate change, such as the Energy Office, the development of local energy communities, the 50/50 projects and the Energy Transition Committee, which demonstrate how to move from innovation to city policies in the field of energy”.
The way of doing innovation at Las Naves, València City Council’s Innovation Centre, follows the quadruple helix model that encourages creativity, participation and collaborative work of the entire innovative ecosystem in the city from the private sector, public administrations and their instrumental entities, universities and their associated research centres and technological institutes, and civil society. To these 4 helixes we have added a fifth helix, the media, due to the importance and value they have in the amplification of messages in society.
Carlos Galiana, València City Councillor for Innovation and Knowledge Management, insisted that “innovation is a collective journey rather than an individual destination. That is why this award is a call to action and collaborative work to the entire Valencian, national, European and international innovation ecosystem with only one condition: that the innovation proposed to decarbonise happens in Valencia. In other words, projects may be presented individually, but it will be valued that alliances with various organisations involved in the different helixes are proposed”.
The València City Council seeks to reward the best innovation project that crosses and combines disciplines from any field, sector, activity, source of knowledge, technology or helixes of the innovation ecosystem and that shows the greatest and broadest impact on the València Neutral City Mission.
The proposed projects must have a clear innovative character promoting changes of model and habits towards more sustainable, healthy, productive, efficient and socially fair ones in the challenge posed by the València Neutral City mission.
A technical evaluation committee will evaluate the proposed projects based on 3 main criteria: the potential impact on the València Neutral City Mission, i.e. on its objective of decarbonising neighbourhoods or towns in Valencia; the additional investment and potential impact on employment; and the social involvement and mobilisation of the ecosystem.
Applications will be submitted from 1 July to 15 September. The winning innovation project will be announced in the second half of November. The entity or entities promoting the innovation will have a period of 18 months from the awarding of the prize.
Missions València 2030
The aim of Missions València 2030 is to guide the research and innovation efforts of the entire ecosystem to achieve a healthier, more sustainable, more shared and more enterprising city, and to do so through innovation missions that attract the talent and knowledge of our society.
Missions València 2030 was recognised in September 2020 by the European Commission as one of the six best innovation initiatives in European cities within its annual European Capital of Innovation 2020 competition (iCapitalAwards 2020) and awarded €100,000.
