Ten city's selected for the final round of the 2017 European Capital of Innovation contest

Thirty two eligible cities from 17 countries applied to this year's competition of the 2017 European Capital of Innovation contest. The contest rewards the European city that is building the best 'innovation ecosystem', connecting citizens, public organisations, academia, and business. Ten cities have reached the final stage of the European Capital of Innovation Award 2017.

The finalists are:

• Aarhus (DK) – for giving citizens more responsibilities in creating social welfare and creating physical labs for innovation;
• Berlin (DE) – for its shared approach to governance, allowing the city boroughs to experiment in several domains, from social innovation to logistics and green supply chains;
• Copenhagen (DK) – for its "Transformative Living Lab" approach, which encourages citizens and entrepreneurs to take part in a network of experimental laboratories;
• Helsinki (FI) – for its world-class education and IT culture that fosters innovative collaborations among citizens and institutions to jointly tackle urban challenges such as air quality, maritime technology and health-tech;
• Nice (FR) – for its Smart City strategy that offers citizens to engage via the city Innovation Centre in decisions on climate change, healthy ageing, environmental risk and security innovation;
• Paris (FR) – for its mission to turn into a "FabCity" hosting the largest start-up campus in the world, which encourages innovative projects by citizens and entrepreneurs;
• Tallinn (EE) – for becoming a model of a true "eCity" by digitalising all the city services;
• Tampere (FI) – for its "Grow.Smart.Together" urban development program, where citizens, universities and businesses are involved in creating smart urban solutions fostering new jobs in the city;
• Tel Aviv (IL) – for its impressive hi-tech sector programmes and city policies, leading to the highest concentration of accelerator programs in Europe;
• Toulouse (FR) – for its Open Metropolis strategy, a participatory governance model allowing citizens and business organisations to co-design major urban local initiatives.

Three cash prizes will be awarded for the best city initiatives creating the right environment to innovate: the winner will receive the European Capital of Innovation 2017 award and a prize of €1 million; two runners-up to receive a prize of € 100 000 each. The winners will be announced on 7 November at the Lisbon Web Summit.