NEWS

Tampere has been awarded first prize in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Awards in the category for public organisations. The announcement was made on 12 June 2025, during the final held in Barcelona.

 

The winning initiative, Tampere Smart City for Citizens, showcased innovative tools such as the Tampere Pulse app and a digital twin of the station area designed to improve urban life and engage residents.

 

The competition placed special emphasis on human-centred innovation and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

 

“This win is great news for Tampere. International recognition enables the city to open up new areas of cooperation,” said Irene Impiö, Director of Innovation and Economic Policy at the City of Tampere. “Winning in such a tough competition is tangible evidence of Tampere’s pioneering role in developing the citiverse—the fusion of physical and digital urban space to improve citizens’ everyday lives. This brings us new opportunities for co-development, and the benefits will be felt by the people of Tampere.”

 

Tampere’s award-winning approach highlights the use of sustainable artificial intelligence, an advanced IoT platform, smart data management, and citizen participation through digital twins. The creation, testing, and implementation of these digital twins were carried out as part of WeGenerate.

 

“If we can test the Pulse app and our advanced digital twins in a city the size of Barcelona, for example, we can learn a great deal about how technologies can meaningfully involve citizens,” said Anniina Autero, Development Manager at the City of Tampere. “Through international projects like WeGenerate, we are able to organise co-creation workshops to test digital plans, use artificial intelligence to analyse residents’ views, and develop gamification tools to strengthen youth participation.”

This recognition underlines Tampere’s commitment to innovation and collaborative urban development—key values driving the WeGenerate project.

 

PICTURE: Anniina Autero and Sebastian Valkama representing Tampere at the competition in Barcelona.