#49 Justine Donia Nota and Külle Tärnov turn city challenges into scalable innovation

In this episode of DMI Doet, Jan-Willem Wesselink speaks with Justine Donia Nota of TNO and Külle Tärnov, Head of Innovation at the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities in Tallinn, about how cities can turn research and technology into solutions that actually work in practice. The conversation was recorded at the Dutch pavilion during the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

Tärnov explains why innovation at FinEst always starts with a concrete challenge from a city, rather than with a technology looking for a problem. She shares examples of how cities, researchers and companies work together to test ideas and bring them closer to real-world use.

Donia Nota recognises the same challenge at TNO. With new tools, data and AI appearing rapidly, the difficult part is often not the technology itself, but getting the right people involved and creating the conditions for innovation to land. What does it take to move beyond pilots? And how do cities avoid reinventing solutions that may already exist elsewhere?