Sant Cugat applies to European Rising Innovative City 2026

This Wednesday, July 16, Mayor Josep Maria Vallès, accompanied by political, academic and business representatives of the city, officially presented Sant Cugat del Vallès’ candidacy for the European Rising Innovative City 2026 awards, organized by the European Commission within the framework of Horizon Europe.

The event was attended by Carles Brugarolas, Deputy Mayor for Economy; Albert Salarich, Councilor for Business, Innovation and Internationalization; Josep Miquel Piqué, PhD in Innovation Ecosystems (Ramon Llull University); Concepció Curet, manager of Sant Cugat Empresarial; and Jaume Vives, former president of Sant Cugat Empresarial.

Vallès explained the reasons why Sant Cugat is a solid and ambitious candidate to apply for the European Rising Innovative City 2026 category. “In Sant Cugat we understand innovation as a tool to improve people’s quality of life, advance in sustainability and strengthen social cohesion. We are a city with a unique combination of natural environment and economic dynamism: 70% of our territory is green and rural, but at the same time we are home to more than 3,000 companies, 89 startups and an ecosystem that generates patents and knowledge. This balance is one of the great values of our candidacy.”

One of the pillars of the candidacy is the BIVA Alliance (Barcelona Innovation Valley Alliance), a strategic instrument that articulates collaboration between public administration, the business community, the academic and research worlds to make Sant Cugat a European benchmark for innovation with social impact.

Josep Miquel Piqué contextualized the pillars of the candidacy, highlighting their alignment with the great innovation challenges on a European scale: “Sant Cugat has the assets, activities, ecosystem and an exemplary governance model to become the next European Rising Innovative City. It has the talent, vision and ambition that Europe needs to build its future from innovation.”

The 6 key assets of the candidacy

The candidate cities for the European Rising Innovative City awards are evaluated for their capacity to experiment, scale innovative initiatives, build collaborative ecosystems, share good practices, deploy a transformative vision and guarantee citizens’ rights through innovation.

Within this framework, Sant Cugat has structured its proposal around six fundamental assets that reflect the city’s innovative DNA:

1. City that experiments. The city positions itself as a true urban laboratory where innovation is tested, adapted and scaled. It has been a pioneer in Catalonia with the implementation of projects such as Smart Street, which incorporated pioneering technology such as adaptive lighting. In addition, it has opted for connectivity with initiatives such as WiFi4EU and the use of smart cameras that improve security and sustainable mobility in real time. Currently, the city is advancing as a Sandbox Regulator, with a regulatory environment that facilitates the experimentation of innovative solutions with real impact.
2. City that scales. Sant Cugat offers an optimal environment for the growth and consolidation of innovative projects. Through the Business Service Office, acceleration programs and initiatives to attract and activate talent, the city actively promotes entrepreneurship and innovation. Large companies such as HP, Roche, GFT and Boehringer have chosen Sant Cugat to locate their R&D and innovation centers, generating qualified employment and establishing links with startups and universities. In this context, within the framework of BIVA, work is being done to consolidate a business acceleration space that reinforces the city’s role as a European innovation hub.

Albert Salarich, Councillor for Business, Innovation and Internationalisation of Sant Cugat City Council, stressed that “Sant Cugat’s candidacy for European Rising Innovative City 2026 is the result of a solid track record built over decades, and the vision we have for the future of the city. It is not the result of improvisation, but of a continuous commitment to education, research, talent and a sustainable economic model with high added value. Today we are reaping the fruits of this collective work, which has positioned the city as a business and technological attraction, with initiatives such as the BIVA Alliance that project us towards European leadership in innovation with social impact.”

3. Innovation ecosystem. The city has built a solid and aligned network of public, private, academic and social agents who work together to promote innovation with impact.

In this sense, Concepció Curet, manager of Sant Cugat Empresarial, highlighted that “Sant Cugat is, in essence, a young, innovative city that attracts multinational companies that find the space and environment in the city to locate their research and innovation centers. And this is not happening now, but has been happening for some time. For example, we have companies like HP that has been leading the global 3D printing business for 40 years and has the Masia HP Experience Design Center, a global design and innovation center, a leading international hub in digital design. There are many others like it.

Sant Cugat has the ideal ecosystem to attract, create, develop, grow and be recognized as a benchmark in innovation. The quality of life of the city, the academic, university and social environment, the group of companies, the will of the city council and associations, such as Sant Cugat Empresarial have facilitated the birth of BIVA, Barcelona Innovation Valley Alliance, the public-private project that contributes to promoting a solid and aligned, to make visible the reality of Sant Cugat as an innovative city, deserving of the European award.”

1. A city that is expanding. Sant Cugat actively cooperates with its surroundings with cities such as Rubí, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Terrassa or Sabadell to promote joint projects in areas such as entrepreneurship, mobility or digitalization. It is a founding member of the Digital Impulse Hub, a Catalan alliance that brings together administrations, universities and technology centers to accelerate the digital transformation of SMEs and institutions. At the state level, it actively participates in the Innpulso Network, and at a European level it leads initiatives such as Health Cities (Interreg), while also being a pilot city in projects such as SunHorizon, BD4NRG, Geofit or Save the Homes.
2. A city with vision. Sant Cugat builds its future with a strategic view and is committed to long-term impact. The city promotes initiatives such as the EcoBarri Living on the Edge, a pioneering project that transforms a bordering area into a self-sufficient, green and inclusive neighborhood, with affordable housing, energy communities and spaces for coexistence. This vision also extends to the fight against climate change with the Climate Emergency Action Plan (PAESC), which sets ambitious goals to reduce CO₂ emissions by 62.6% by 2030 compared to 2005. In the field of innovation, the Strategic Plan for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation System defines a framework for action to enhance the attraction and retention of talent, create real value for the city’s business and entrepreneurial ecosystem and achieve the creation of a sustainable model based on five axes – Inspiration, Talent, Activation, Incubation and Territorial Initiatives -.
3. Citizen rights. Sant Cugat understands innovation as a tool at the service of social cohesion and equal opportunities. With a diverse population—with over 75 nationalities and 19% of foreign residents—it promotes inclusive policies such as the Decidim Sant Cugat platform, which promotes direct participation in participatory budgets and projects such as Camins Escolars. The city has also created the figure of the Commissioner for People with Disabilities, guaranteeing rights and visibility to a group that represents 5% of the population.

For his part, Jaume Vives, former president of SCEmpresarial, highlighted that “From the very beginning, Sant Cugat Empresarial, the association of companies and entrepreneurs in the Sant Cugat area, has given our most enthusiastic support to this candidacy. We are convinced of the strength of our business, institutional and academic fabric, evidenced by the number and quality of companies established in the municipality and the excellence of the educational and university offer. To mention one of the strong points of the candidacy, we believe that the intense interaction between academia and business has the potential to increase the speed of economic development and overcome one of the current weaknesses of innovation in our country, which is the insufficient translation of university research into products and services that provide business value and to society as a whole. When Sant Cugat is named as an innovative European city, we must make the most of the time so that at the end of the period, Sant Cugat can show itself as a new city, powerful, prosperous and exciting and thus be able to continue projecting our environment towards a better future. We want to be part of this exciting initiative and together build a society based on knowledge, innovation, sustainability, which offers attractive professional opportunities to our environment, to our children.”

European Capital of Innovation Awards 2026

The European Capital of Innovation Awards annually recognize European cities that lead innovation in areas such as governance, entrepreneurship and technology applied to the well-being of citizens. The awards are part of the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 program.

The Rising Innovative City category is aimed at cities with between 50,000 and 249,999 inhabitants —such as Sant Cugat— and awards a prize of €500,000 to the winning city, while the two finalists receive €50,000 each. The call closed on June 18, 2025 and the results will be known at the end of the year.

https://biva.cat/european-capital-of-innovation