Barcelona, leading European city in innovation
The city has been awarded the iCapital prize for its dedication to the use of new technologies for the benefit of local residents
The European Commission awarded the iCapital prize (European Capital of Innovation) to Barcelona for its “Barcelona, the people's city” project. With this distinction, the city was chosen as winner out of other projects such as those in Grenoble (France) and Groningen (Netherlands).
The prize of €500,000 will be used to expand the innovation efforts of the city. A major part of it will be dedicated to developing a new operating system called CityOS. This is a software operating system that manages information generated in the city and aims at becoming a reference operating system for other cities. The award was announced during the closing ceremony of the 2014 Innovation Convention, which took place on 10th and 11th March.
The “Barcelona, the people's city” project aims at expanding and introducing the use of new technologies in citizen's everyday services, with the aim of promoting economic growth and securing the welfare of the residents of Barcelona. This project has resulted in several IT initiatives for individuals and companies, with sustainable urban growth and social innovation etc.
More info:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm?section=icapital