Innovation competition of Kohtla-Järve welcomes smart ideas to improve the town

The town of Kohtla-Järve along with science and business park Tehnopol announced an innovation competition to find and implement smart city ideas at Kohtla-Järve. The prize of the competition is 20 000 euros, 10 000 euros of which were already distributed in spring.

The aim of the competition is to increase the cooperation between the town of Kohtla-Järve and technology companies, and to support the town’s ambition to transform into a more modern, economic, open and friendly place for its people and visitors. In addition, the competition will bring innovative smart city solutions, products and services to Kohtla-Järve.

Riina Ivanova, the chairman of Kohtla-Järve town council, expressed joy that the competition takes place for the second time in Kohtla-Järve. “The town anticipates innovative ideas, which can be used to improve the urban space or to make the lives of elderly people better. It is difficult to predict what kind of ideas will be presented to the competition, but we are ready for change,” said Ivanova.

Olga Kurdovskaja, the smart city innovation competition coordinator at Ida-Virumaa, sees a huge potential in supporting innovation. “One of the aims of Tehnopol is to support the birth and growth of innovation. That is why we have established innovation funds, which can support ideas that improve our surrounding environment,” she said. Kurdovskaja encouraged companies to actively participate, since in addition to the financial support, the competition also gives a good opportunity to reach numerous interest groups.

The participants can implement their products and services in Kohtla-Järve, organize pilot projects in actual living environment, get real-time feedback for their products and services. The representatives of Kohtla-Järve will support the participants with necessary contacts and advice, also it is possible to get help from Tehnopol’s network of mentors. The competition’s jury consists of experts in the field from Kohtla-Järve and science and business park Tehnopol.

The first innovation competition of Kohtla-Järve took place in the spring and received 17 applications. The best solutions came from ACM Metal and Fusebox.

The deadline for the ideas is September 6, additional information can be found here https://innovatsioonifond.tehnopol.ee/kohtla-jarve/. The results will be presented on October 4 during Tallinn entrepreneurship week.