71 ideas were received for the open idea competition for the Smart City in 2020, the best four of which were selected and implemented by FinEst Centre for Smart Cities together with the partner cities where the solutions are piloted. Among the remaining 67 ideas, there were still many good ones, so we decided not to make a new open collection of ideas in 2021, but to use same urban challenges and evaluate the ideas submitted in 2020 with a slightly different methodology, and to find two of them that can be implemented in 18 months.
In Phase 1 of 2021 challenge, representatives of the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities and ministries selected 15 ideas from the last year’s competition. During the summer, we did a reality check with the authors of the idea, and 10 idea were decided to continue, then the Estonian and Finnish cities evaluated these ideas and 5 ideas reached the finals. The cities were then able to apply to become pilot partners.
The implementation of pilot projects was funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research through the project „Targa linna tippkeskuse toetusmeetme rakendamine“.