The Access Cities 2019 Open Innovation Calls led to en-hanced collaboration and new calls

More than 80 submissions to the Open Innovation Calls in New York and Copenhagen resulted in brand new ideas and insights as well as enhanced collaboration between the cities.

As part of the Access Cities programme, New York City and Copenhagen developed a joint Open Innovation Call during the Autumn of 2019, targeting Air Quality and Urban Heat Island effect. These areas are not only relevant to the two participating cities, but also for many other cities worldwide.

Respectively, the two cities received 40 submissions from 15 different countries (NYC) and 45 submissions from 23 different countries (Copenhagen). This makes it quite clear that the interest and potential for substantial change and ground-breaking efforts are needed and obtainable.

Paving the way for collaboration on urban development

As part of the calls, the two cities conducted two finales (NYC/CPH), where the companies with the most promising solutions pitched their ideas in front of the cities’ agencies and decision makers engaged in sustainable urban development. At the events, both the winners and the runners up had a chance to talk with the city representatives about potentially moving forward with pilot projects, further discussion on somewhat incomplete solutions, etc.

The Access Cities’ Open Innovation Calls are designed to generate dialogue, exchange ideas and potentially create collaboration between the participants, the cities as well as other stakeholders. Therefore, the cities also joined each other’s finales in order to adopt and develop more cross-city collaboration.

Access Cities’ purpose comes to life

Based on the increasing awareness of our planet’s condition and the proactive leadership of many cities worldwide, the Open Innovation Calls aim at making cities search for, develop and pursue sustainable solutions to urban challenges that can improve liveability for the citizens.

Through the calls, companies – big, small, start-ups – are encouraged to come up with solutions and new ways of dealing with these urban challenges. However, entering foreign markets can be difficult and expensive, but with activities like Access Cities’ Open Innovation Calls, the way to get exposure and direct access to city decision makers could be a game changer for the involved companies.

The two calls in NYC and Copenhagen made way for a range of companies to display their solutions to the problems at hand. Access Cities hereby provided the platform for substantial exposure for the participating companies.

Challenges and solutions go hand in hand

The cities of New York and Copenhagen were already collaborating about environmental and climate issues generally, but now the two cities are looking into how to make the most out of these joint calls to optimise the efforts and resources to actively deal with Air Quality and Urban Heat Island effect.

Red tape may still exist in public administration and development, even when it comes to international collaboration. However, the urge, need and wish to pursue common viable solutions make it easier for the cities involved to move forward – together – in a faster pace, leading the way and showcasing solutions for other cities to adopt and copy.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither were New York and Copenhagen, but the calls are making way for sustainable development and collaboration that will make a difference for the generations to come.

New call on Air Quality in Copenhagen

Currently, Copenhagen has an open tender concerning the supply of data from air-quality sensors in Copenhagen. You can find more about the tender here (alas in Danish, but you can find an English Specification of Requirements here ). Deadline is 16 December 2019. For more information for this call, please contact Tina Hjøllund Petersen, Project Manger, City of Copenhagen, tinahj@kk.dk.  

For more information about Access Cities and the Open Innovation Calls, please contact  Climate-KIC or  Danish Cleantech Hub