Innovation is helping to:
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Improve service delivery
Improve internal government operations
Critical success factors:
Focus on measurement
Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Mayor
Ahmed Aboutaleb
Population
623,654 (2015)
Innovation Website
Lead Innovation Officer
Mark Vermeer
Spotlight on innovation in Rotterdam
Note: The City Innovation Snapshot (PDF version) was produced in 2019 and some aggregate findings have been updated with the latest survey results below.
Vision and approach to innovation capacity
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Rotterdam does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 24% of cities surveyed, Rotterdam approaches innovation capacity in specific policy areas/domains.
Policy areas that Rotterdam is focused on
Policy areas by number of cities
Rotterdam utilizes 4 different innovation skills or roles
Innovation roles by number of cities
Rotterdam’s innovation work is sprinkled throughout the city administration. There is an innovation-related task group with delegates from different departments.
Terms Rotterdam most associates with innovation
Rotterdam's most common innovation activities
- 1
Taking risks or testing new ideas
- 2
Data-driven analytics/public data management
- 3
Engaging residents in new ways
- 4
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
- 5
Organizational change within the municipality
- 6
Human-centered design
- 7
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Rotterdam's innovation activities also include promoting data-driven analytics; and developing new solutions based on digital technologies.
How is innovation funded here?
Like 19% of cities surveyed, Rotterdam does not have dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Top sources of funding
Rotterdam has no reported sources of funding.
Activities being funded
Rotterdam does not fund any specific activities.
47 cities
Launching or sustaining a project
79 cities
Idea generation & brainstorming
51 cities
Investing in digital systems
36 cities
Investing in physical infrastructure
30 cities
Paying for services
How is innovation measured?
Rotterdam has developed partnerships to promote its innovation capacity with private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with academia and think tanks to collect and analyze data.