Commission announces innovation admin award

The European Commission has announced the winners of the European Prize for Innovation in Public Administration. This prize celebrates the most innovative, forward-looking public initiatives which benefit citizens, firms, or the education and research sector.

Nine initiatives from Croatia, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain (two winners), Sweden and the UK were awarded €100,000. Winning initiatives included integrated healthcare information accessible on a mobile phone, a web-based platform for funding opportunities for firms, and a nationwide plagiarism detection system for higher education institutions. The awards were announced at the WIRE Conference in Cork, Ireland.

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, said: “Innovation is not just something for business. The public sector makes up half of EU gross domestic product, so it must also embrace change. The winners today show that by harnessing new ideas and technology we can improve people’s lives and help modernise our economies. We need more initiatives like these.”

The nine winners were selected by an independent jury on the basis of four criteria: the economic impact of their initiative; its relevance to challenges facing society; how original and easy to replicate the idea is; and how they plan to use the prize money.

The prize money will be used to further develop the ideas.