Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of Climate-KIC (2017)

Cities and metropolitan areas have been singled out by the COP21 agreement as key players in dealing with the threat and effects of climate change. By 2050, it is predicted that over 66% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. It is therefore vital that we make every effort to make cities sustainable, low carbon, and climate resilient.

In order to facilitate this transition, Climate-KIC has been promoting, developing, and co-organising Open Innovation events with city administrations across the Nordic region. By actively adopting the concept of Open Innovation into their business model, we believe that city administrations can simultaneously accelerate and improve the sustainable innovation process, achieve valuable co-benefits, and create blue-green growth in their economy. Furthermore, our co-hosted events across the Nordics, as well as our promotion of such events across our pan-European partner network, have assisted progressive cities such as Copenhagen and Malmo establish themselves as front runners in the field of urban sustainability.

Having now ascertained proof of concept for City-led Open Innovation, our next objective is to spread our knowledge and learnings to other cities across the EU and beyond.