InnoCities Coordination

The Council of Tampere Region coordinates InnoCities activities in cooperation with cities, regional councils and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland. The activities are directed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the national steering group and their secretariats. The national steering group includes Business Finland, the Academy of Finland, various ministries, cities, universities and the business community.

Finnish target of 4 % of GDP invested in RDI challenge InnoCities and their coordination to improve the conditions for growth, including the development environments and the innovation capacity of the regions.

InnoCities Coordination’s main goals have been that cities and other stakeholders involved in the ecosystem agreement have an updated and shared overview of the overall implementation, which helps direct new actions and supports actors in collaboration. Furthermore, cities have a consistent way of understanding and evaluating their own impact. In addition, urban developers utilize the surrounding network (peers, steering group, experts) in a way that supports them in solving problems, sharing best practices, and seizing new funding and development opportunities.

InnoCities are platforms for development and experiments that are beneficial for green and digital transition. Main themes in the Finnish sustainable urban development are sustainable transition, digitalization and new technologies, and wellbeing.

By bringing together science and private companies cities have accelerated innovations and investments. The goal has been to develop international-level innovation environments, accelerate promising business ecosystems, and strengthen expertise.

Between 2021 and 2027, the EU, the state, cities, and other public actors invest nearly EUR 140 million in the development of innovation ecosystems. Cities participate in this with a share of 25–40%. As of April 10 2025, there are ongoing projects worth EUR 79 million.

The coordination aims to promote Finland's approach to developing innovation ecosystems and implementing sustainable urban development. International visits, an English-language newsletter, and various events are on our agenda to achieve this.

Comprehensive data collection is one of our tools, as is monitoring how InnoCities succeed in winning international funding. The Council of Tampere Region also funds national InnoCities lead themes, which require participation of thematic city networks.

InnoCities coordination has developed a common impact model for cities, with metrics that allow cities to measure their own ecosystem impact. The model is a nationally unique effort. The coordination has created a continuously updated project overview dashboard. Open information sharing and project portfolio increase cities' understanding of each others activities.

The coordination actively communicates about cities’ impact work and reaches well the 18-city network.

The independent coordination team in the middle between different stakeholders and the cities implementing the strategies is an acclaimed innovation which has helped support the program initiatives and cities’ best practices. The team has also been able to target questions and issues on a national level and find best solutions and the right people from the vast network of cities.

The impact model and impact measurement of Innovation Cities are good examples that other cities and urban developers can follow. Open information sharing and situational awareness, such as project and funding portfolios and impact data monitoring, can also be replicated elsewhere. Information sharing encourages cities to collaborate and benchmark one other in a constructive manner.

Based on feedback, the coordination has effectively supported the cities' ecosystem work, increased connections between cities, and provided good communication about the activities of the InnoCities.

http://www.innocities.fi/