21 Global Cities call for Solutions to Improve Lives of 110 Million
Cities require new solutions as they face major challenges in areas such as mobility, health, safety, urban management, carbon emissions, education and tourism. In turn, solutions providers are often struggling to navigate a complex market of 557,000 local governments in the world.
Since 2009, the Living Labs Global Award has worked together with cities in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas to present major societal challenges affecting more than 125 million people. In response, more than 800 solutions providers have in the past two editions responded with often ground breaking technologies, ready to meet those challenges.
The Award provides these innovators an opportunity to present their solutions directly to a leading group of cities, receive professional and documented evaluation, win prestigious recognition for their efforts and an opportunity to enter a new market through a pilot.
For the 2012 edition, 21 cities, including Barcelona, Fukuoka, Lagos and San Francisco have joined the Living Labs Global Award to improve the lives of more than 90 million citizens.
Winners of the Living Labs Global Award are invited to implement a pilot of their solution to evaluate impact, provide input into product development, and improve procurement or regulatory decisions by cities later on. This has transformed the way waste management is planned in Barcelona, the way venture capital is provided to social entrepreneurs in Cape Town, or community Healthcare is delivered in New Taipei City.
Entries can be submitted on www.llga.org/submission.php until 17th February 2012. International juries will evaluate the entries and provide a shortlist of the top 100 showcases on 5th March. Winners will be announced at the award ceremony on 2nd May 2012 followed by the Rio Summit on Service Innovation in Cities on the 3d of May.
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