Roglab awarded for innovation

The Eurocities awards showcase a different theme each year, with "creative, competitive cities" representing this year's contestants who foster competition and inclusion for a richer and more prosperous environment of their communities. The Eurocities network connects over 130 of the largest European cities and 40 partner cities.

Three projects won the awards in different categories. In cooperation, the award went to ‘Leeds 2023’ that aims to transform the city's economy through culture and creativity. In participation, the laureate was Oulu with its ‘Chaos challenge’ project that asks citizens each year to come up with ideas to help make Oulu more attractive for 15-29 years olds. And finally, in the category of innovation: Ljubljana with its ‘RogLab’ project that connects and supports entrepreneurs and creatives, offering a space to co-create and prototype new ideas. RogLab won over the jury as the pilot project for transforming an industrial heritage, empowering agents in the fields of culture, creativity and education, encouraging creative interdisciplinary collaboration, with sharing economies and knowledge transfer taking centre stage.

"The Eurocities award is acknowledgement to those who took part in creating and developing RogLab. As a collaborative organisation, it tries to answer to the needs of those working in the creative, cultural and educational fields, while dealing with the challenges of globalisation and the ever-evolving technology. It is an interdisciplinary space where graphic artists meet electrical engineers, fashion designers create for fashion enthusiasts with disabilities, children collaborate with urban planners and knitting aficionados can chat with millennials." — Meta Štular, RogLab's general manager