Can startups solve urban problems?

Can startups solve urban problems?

Can city administrations benefit from the entrepreneurial spirit of startups, and create better urban solutions with their help? The paper Can startups solve urban problems? critically assesses the interplay between startups and city administrations for city-driven innovative public procurement or ‘challenge-based procurement’ policy, taking Amsterdam’s Startup in Residence programme as a case study.

Economic development and governance perspective

Professor of Urban Economic Innovation Willem van Winden and Senior Researcher at the Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT, University of Porto) and Visiting Fellow at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) Luís Carvalho describe and analyse the programme from two perspectives: the economic development perspective and a governance perspective. Does it promote startups and does it bring them new business opportunities? And does it bridge the gap between startups and the city bureaucracy: does it lead to a more innovative culture within city government?

Smart City Academy

The publication is issued by Smart City Academy. Smart City Academy develops research and education on smart cities in order to gain more knowlegde on the organization of smart cities. A multi disciplinairy team works on different aspects of smart city projects, such as entrepreneurship, public private partnerships, user involvement, business cases, democracy by design and (big) data. As a partner in Amsterdam Smart City, we strengthen the smart city network in Amsterdam through new research, masterclasses, frameworks and tools.