This Monday, the city of Lisbon was elected European Capital of Innovation in 2023 and Carlos Moedas wants to take advantage of the distinction to use technology as a means to solve people’s problems.
“I would like to invest more in social innovation, in innovation that really addresses the problems we have today, putting technology at the service of people, whether they are housing problems or homelessness,” says the president of the Lisbon City Council to TSF.
The mayor of Lisbon maintains that technology will not solve the problems by itself, but it can be an important help: “How can innovation and technology help? Obviously it is not innovation and technology that solve the problem, but they can help solve today’s problems. because otherwise technology moves away from people. “People think that technology is something that is not for people.”
The announcement was made by Carlos Moedas himself on social networks. “We are the Innovation Capital of Europe! The European Commission has just announced the largest innovation award in the world. It is Lisbon! We won this award thanks to the Unicorn Factory, thanks to the incredible work we have done in these two years,” said the president of the Lisbon City Council, in a video shared on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Lisbon is the European Capital of Innovation This award is a recognition of the work carried out in @unicornflisboa and it is also one more step to put innovation at the service of people.#PremiosiCapital pic.twitter.com/23RWXTjeIi
-Carlos Moedas (@Moedas) November 27, 2023
The mayor of Lisbon highlighted the work carried out in the first two years of the 2021-2025 mandate, in which it was possible to attract “more than 54 technology companies” and “12 unicorns” to the city. [empresas que atingem uma valorização de 1.000 milhões de dólares sem ter presença na bolsa].
“And now we are recognized with a prize of one million euros,” said the mayor of Lisbon.
With this award, which the Portuguese capital receives for the first time, Carlos Moedas considered that Lisbon can “invest even more, invest in innovation that changes people’s lives”, indicating that the Unicórnios Factory will invest in “social innovation projects and fight against exclusion, using technology as a social elevator”.
In addition to Lisbon, Lviv (Ukraine) and Warsaw (Poland) were the final candidate cities for the title of European Capital of Innovation 2023, a distinction awarded by the European Commission, since 2014, to recognize the cities that do the most and best promote innovation in the respective communities.
In a statement, the Lisbon City Council recalled that the Unicorn Factory project was the basis of the city’s candidacy for the award.
“This award also shows that we can and must be more ambitious. That we have everything it takes to be the best. Today, thanks to the success of the Unicorn Factory, Lisbon has won the most prestigious award for a European city. “It is a reason of pride for me as the highest official of the municipality of Lisbon. But, above all, it is a very strong sign of what we are capable of doing when we have ambition. This award was a dream, which many believed impossible. , but that today we bring to Lisbon,” reinforced Carlos Moedas, quoted in the statement.
Source: TSF
