Espoo Mayor’s Innovation Competition 2024 started on May Day

The competition is open to Espoo-based companies and the employees and work communities of the City of Espoo. Companies that apply must be registered in Espoo. The innovation can be developed together with partner organisations.

The competition seeks both big and small innovations and ideas to help us improve services provided for Espoo residents and develop practices in keeping with the Espoo Story. Past winning entries have come from various fields – and many of them were developed through multisectoral cooperation.

The Innovation Competition pays particular attention to innovations that prioritise customers and Espoo residents. 

“The purpose of the competition is to highlight the continuous, innovative development work that is being carried out in Espoo. The innovations developed by city employees and local companies make the everyday life of Espoo residents easier. It is time to showcase these solutions,” says Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor of Espoo. 
 

The City of Espoo has been organising the Mayor’s Innovation Competition together with Excellence Finland since 2012. A panel of experts from Excellence Finland will evaluate the applications and select the finalists from among them. The City of Espoo’s own panel of judges will evaluate the applications that have made it to the final. 

Applications will also automatically take part in Excellence Finland’s national Quality Innovation Award (QIA) competition, and the winners of the award will also compete in the international Quality Innovation Award competition.  

The 2024 competition is seeking resident- and customer-oriented innovations in the following two categories:  

1. Innovations category. Innovations that have already proven to solve challenges efficiently or productively. 
2. Potential Innovations category. New innovations that are still in the development phase and have the potential to solve challenges effectively or productively.  

Workplaces, companies and employees may enter the Mayor’s Innovation Competition. The prize for an employee is paid as a bonus (earned income). 

Prizes awarded to a workplace/company:  
First prize in the innovations category €5,000                                      
First prize in the potential innovations category €3,000          

Prize awarded to an employee:
First prize in the innovations category €500 
First prize in the potential innovations category €300

Honourable mentions awarded at the jury's discretion €100–500. 

The innovations will be evaluated based on the following criteria: 

Innovativeness

• Novelty value 
  • fulfils needs in a new or significantly revised way
  • is timely.
• Usability 
  • is applied in practice systematically and according to a plan within a company, organisation or society
  • is feasible.
• Learning 
  • based on an insight
  • utilises information in a new way
  • is created as a result of or is supported by systematic development
  • service development utilises partnerships, where appropriate. 

 Excellence

• Improved customer orientation 
  • meets current and future customer needs
  • meets customer requirements
  • aims to exceed customer expectations
  • service development utilises partnerships, where appropriate.
• Improved profitability and efficiency 
  • technical or financial performance related to customers
  • social, societal, and environmental responsibility
  • lower stakes yield the same outcome
  • the same stakes yield more
  • lower stakes yield more
  • service development utilises partnerships, where appropriate. 

• Competition is open: 1 May–14 June 2024   
• Information webinar on the Mayor’s Innovation Competition(external link, opens in a new window): 8 May 2024 1–2 pm. The webinar provides concrete tips for submitting the application.
• Ask about the Mayor’s Innovation Competition application process and form(external link, opens in a new window):  22 May 2024 1–2 pm. The webinar offers practical advice for preparing and sending the application. You can ask questions about the application process for the Mayor’s Innovation Competition. Based on the participants’ questions, we will give them tips to help polish their applications.  
• Excellence Finland will evaluate the applications.  All participants will receive a notification on whether or not their proposal has made it to the final: 20 September 2024.
• The finalists will give a brief presentation on their innovation to the city management in the autumn. 
• After this, the evaluation team of the City of Espoo will hold a meeting.  
• A proposal of the winners and honorary mentions will be presented to the Mayor and Espoo’s Management Group.  
• The award ceremony will be held on 23 October 2024. 
• The award ceremony of the national Quality Innovation Award competition organised by Excellence Finland will be held on 7 November 2024.   

Competition application form(external link, opens in a new window)  

Instructions for completing the form  

Please make sure you fill in the application form carefully so that anyone who is not familiar with the context can get a clear idea of your innovation and be able to assess its quality and novelty value based the application form alone. A competition briefing will be held as a Teams webinar on 8 May 2024 from 1 to 2 pm. The webinar will provide concrete tips for submitting the application. The webinar will be recorded and made available online. 

Read the instructions for filling in the application form carefully. You can fill in the form in several parts. Save the incomplete form using the ‘Save and continue later’ button at the bottom of the form. The system will ask for your e-mail address to send a link to continue completing the form later.  

Innovation Competition Essi page(external link, opens in a new window)  

Quality Innovation Award – Excellence Finland(external link, opens in a new window)  
  

Issues related to completing the competition application: Katja Eskola, Excellence Finland, tel. +358 45 2631613, or katja.eskola@excellencefinland.fi
General information on the competition: Minna Salaspuro, City of Espoo, tel. +358 40 6368978 or minna.salaspuro@espoo.fi