Torino and Braga take the 2024-25 European Capital of Innovation prizes

On 13 November 2024 the European Commission announced the winners of the 2024-25 European Capital of Innovation Awards, commonly called iCapital. The ceremony took place in Lisbon during the Web Summit. The European Capital of Innovation 2024-25 is Torino which received a €1 million prize. The European Rising Innovative City winner is Braga which received €500 000. Runners up in each category also received cash awards.

What the Commission highlighted about the winners

The Commission framed the awards as recognising cities that embed innovation into everyday urban life and use innovation to improve inclusion, sustainability and resilience. Commissioner Iliana Ivanova congratulated Torino and Braga, stating that their work shows innovation goes beyond technology to encompass opportunities and quality of life for citizens. The ceremony brought together mayors from winning and past iCapital cities and is part of a wider EIC effort to raise the profile of municipal innovation.

Why each city was chosen, according to the official submissions

The Commission’s descriptions of the winning applications emphasised different strengths. Torino was presented as a city that leverages an industrial past to run broad experimentation across climate resilience, housing, urban mobility and talent retention. Braga’s application stressed a rapid trajectory of economic growth, export expansion and active development of tech clusters and cultural industries combined with inclusion efforts.

Award criteria and how cities are judged

The iCapital competition evaluates city applications along six main criteria focused on the role cities play as experimentation spaces, ecosystem builders and role models for other urban areas. Assessment is performed by two high level juries of independent experts and follows the rules prescribed in the EIC work programme.

Who organises the prize and where it sits in EU policy

The iCapital awards are managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, EISMEA, under the European Innovation Council component of Horizon Europe. iCapital is one of five EIC Prizes. The awards are open to cities in EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe. The competition was launched in 2014 and 2024 marked the tenth edition of the prize.

What the prize delivers and its limitations

The awards combine cash, visibility and a place in the iCapital alumni network. Prize money is useful for public initiatives and pilot projects but it is modest next to the scale of city budgets and EU research and innovation programmes. A €1 million award can seed projects and raise profile, but long term systemic change requires sustained investment, policy change and measurable outcomes. The Commission and EISMEA promote alumni networking and knowledge exchange as additional benefits beyond the cash prize.

Analysts and city officials should therefore treat the prize as a lever rather than a comprehensive solution. Winning provides attention and political capital which cities can use to attract further public and private funding. What matters for citizens is whether awarded projects are scaled and evaluated with transparent indicators of social and environmental impact.

Selection, transparency and data handling — points to watch

Winners are chosen by juries of experts. The process relies on independent assessment but also involves judgement calls about ambition, replicability and narrative quality. There is an inherent subjectivity in comparing cities with different starting points and sizes. Transparency on scoring, long term monitoring and publication of follow up results would strengthen the award’s public value.

Jury and expert involvement

The competition uses two juries of independent experts to assess candidates. The 2024-25 materials list a range of urban policy, design, innovation and city governance specialists among the jurors and advisors. Names cited in Commission materials include urbanists and practitioners with international experience. The Commission also uses experts drawn from the Horizon Europe experts database for evaluators, business coaches and jury members.

Past winners and continuity

iCapital began in 2014. Past winners of the main category include Barcelona (2014), Amsterdam (2016), Paris (2017), Athens (2018), Nantes (2019), Leuven (2020), Dortmund (2021), Aix-Marseille Provence Metropole (2022), and Lisbon (2023). Rising Innovative City winners have included Vantaa (2021), Haarlem (2022), Linköping (2023) and Braga (2024-25). The alumni network is intended to foster peer learning between these cities but the measurable returns from that network vary by city.

Practical next steps for winners and watchers

For Torino and Braga the immediate tasks are to allocate prize funds transparently, publish clear indicators of what the awards will fund, and commit to independent monitoring and public reporting. Other cities watching the competition should take note of the submission format, the jury’s emphasis on experiment-to-mainstream pathways, and the importance of a credible ecosystem narrative. Observers should also track whether the prize results in follow-on investment and durable policy change.

Bottom line. The iCapital awards deliver money and visibility and are useful tools in the EU innovation toolkit. They are not substitutes for structural investment in housing, transport or social services. The award winners now have the political opportunity to convert recognition into demonstrable change. Independent tracking of those outcomes will determine whether the awards catalyse durable urban innovation or mainly generate short term headlines.