Technology not only makes public services more readily available but allows governments to deliver services that are more targeted, better tailored and ultimately more effective. But
who does it best? And how do they do it?
UserCentriCities – an 18-city, two-think tank, one-association consortium co-financed by the European Union – set out to find out. After a year of research, reflection and data gathering, we asked cities to pitch their best, most innovative projects, leaning especially on the ones
that had delivered the most value for citizens. The winner: Helsinki, which rolled out an innovative system for offering and registering pre-primary educational places to families through simple text messaging. A prominent jury of six top specialists – all top experts in
their field – chose the project from among 35 others.
The UserCentriCities project will continue in the Autumn with The 2022 UserCentriCities Summit, a high-level City CIO-level gathering due to convene in November in Prague under the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Among the cities taking part at CIO level are Barcelona, Brussels, Espoo, Ghent, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Madrid, Milan, Murcia, Paris, Porto, Rotterdam and Tallinn; Kronoberg Region (Sweden), Emilia Romagna Region (Italy), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Eurocities and the Lisbon Council are also members.
Download the Press Release
Read about Helsinki’s Innovative Pre-Primary Allocation Scheme
Visit the Dedicated Website
Meet the UserCentriCities Prize Jury
View Photo Highlights of the UserCentriCities Forum in Espoo, Finland