(11 October 2017) – Yesterday evening the RegioStars Awards ceremony took place in Brussels as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities. The Commission also announced the 16 cities selected for the Urban Innovative Actions 2017.
The annual EU-wide RegioStars competition puts the spotlight on the most innovative and inspiring EU funded projects and illustrates, through concrete real-life examples, how Cohesion Policy supports people’s lives through the creation of economic growth and jobs at a regional level.
This year, the 103 submitted projects competed in 5 categories: (1) Smart Specialisation for SME innovation; (2) Energy Union: climate change; (3) Women empowerment and active participation; (4) Education and Training; and (5) CityStars: cities in digital transition.
The RegioStars 2017 winners are: (1) Bio Base North West Europe; (2) InnoHiili – Innovative low-carbon public services (Ii, FI); (3) A network of centres supporting female victims of gender-based violence (Murcia, ES); (4) EkoBiz – Promotion of youth entrepreneurship in organic farming (Dalmatia, HR); (5) Smart Service Power (Dusseldorf, DE).
As for the Urban Innovative Actions initiative, 16 cities have been selected to receive financial support from the ERDF. In the Circular Economy category: Antwerp (BE), Heraklion (EL), Kerkrade (NL), Lappeenranta (FI), Ljubljana (SI), Maribor. For Migrant Integration: Athens (EL), Coventry (UK) and Fuenlabrada (ES). For Urban Mobility: Albertslund (DK), Ghent (BE), Lahti (FI), Szeged (HU) and Toulouse (FR). These cities now have three years to implement their projects.