Sacyr launches the fifth edition of Sacyr iChallenges, its open innovation and co-creation program aimed at solving, together with the innovation ecosystem, four business challenges issued by the company.
The call has an international scope and is aimed at any entity that provides innovative solutions to the challenges previously established by Sacyr. All innovation agents interested in participating (startups, technology companies, universities, technology centers or large corporations, among others) may submit their application until July 15th through the website www.sacyrichallenges.com.
The purpose of this open innovation program is to find fellow travelers with whom to promote solutions to foster the sustainable development of our activities that result in better infrastructures and services for citizens.
Sacyr iChallenges represents a unique opportunity to collaborate in solving relevant challenges with a global group. In addition, it brings the possibility of accessing Sacyr's network of clients and suppliers, working hand in hand with industry experts and having access to financing, scalability, and greater notoriety for their projects.
In this fifth edition, Sacyr advances in its commitment to sustainability, a key pillar of the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, through the promotion of innovation pilots with the best talent in the ecosystem.
Sacyr iChallenges 2022: The challenges
The four challenges of this edition of Sacyr iChallenges are focused on sustainability in different activities of the company. The challenges are:
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New solutions to boost sustainable urban mobility. How we can improve our current services and explore new lines of development for mobility management and emissions optimization in urban areas.
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New solutions to maximize the use of renewable energy. How we can increase the capacity for generating, storing, and harnessing renewable energy in our facilities, while reducing our energy bill.
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New materials utilization. How to promote the recovery of waste from the development of new industries and existing streams of non-efficiently treated materials.
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Reducing the carbon footprint in construction. New solutions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during the execution phase of our construction works.
Program, deadlines, and selection criteria
Project proposals for fifth edition of Sacyr iChallenges can be submitted on the program's website (www.sacyrichallenges.com) until July 15th.
The next phase of the process will be the evaluation of all the proposals received by the people in charge of the different business areas of Sacyr.
After this review, priority will be given to those proposals that offer the most innovative, efficient, and scalable solutions, technologies, or business models to solve the proposed challenges. In this phase, experts from the business lines become involved to provide first-hand knowledge of the solutions and work together to match the proposals with the challenge to be solved. After this process, the three best ideas per challenge will be selected and communicated during the month of October.
The teams leading the selected proposals will work together with Sacyr's business experts to develop solutions that will materialize in a pilot project. The selected teams will also receive mentoring from the sponsors of the challenges, directors of different Sacyr business areas, whose guidance will help drive these projects forward.
The iChallenges program finalizes with the celebration of the Sacyr Innovation Summit, which will take place in November, at the company's headquarters in Madrid. At this event, the selected innovative agents will publicly present their initiatives to solve the four challenges.
In addition, the Sacyr Foundation will recognize, as part of the 12th Edition of the Sacyr Innovation Awards, some of the solutions presented by the innovation community in Sacyr iChallenges.
A reference in innovation programs
This is the fifth edition of a program that is adding successful collaborations with new national and international innovation agents. Sacyr has been working with the innovation ecosystem for more than a decade in the creation of solutions with the aim of incorporating them into its business areas and always upholding sustainability as a reference value.
To date, Sacyr iChallenges has received a total of more than 1,000 proposals from all over the world to solve the challenges that have arisen in each of the editions, promoting different projects. This capacity for implementation is what has consolidated the program as a reference in innovation in the infrastructure and services sector, where it is challenging to innovate.
Some of the most outstanding projects from previous years are:
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Together with Contilio, a British startup focused on the analysis of 3D data in construction sites using artificial intelligence, we have worked on automating the progress report of construction work from data from the environment such as drone flights, images, etc. The goal is to measure the evolution of the project more accurately and generate reports on the project status in real time.
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In collaboration with scaleup Detektia, Sacyr is developing an early warning system to anticipate the geotechnical behavior of the terrain. The system is based on satellite imaging, multiple data sources, and different artificial intelligence models.
