Ideas from young entrepreneurs around the world tested in companies at Porto

The CityXperiment initiative, designed by the Municipality of Porto under the coordination of Porto Digital, will allow 50 participants in this year's edition of the European Innovation Academy to test their innovative solutions in different companies in the city. The finalists, who can participate individually or as a group, will be announced at the event's closing session on 2 August, but that will be the start of the real challenge.

Developed to bring the talent of around 50 young entrepreneurs to the corporate world, the CityXperiment programme is one of the great novelties coming out of this year's edition of the European Innovation Academy (EIA), which is taking place for the third year running in the city of Porto.

The selected participants/teams will be announced on 2 August, at EIA's closing ceremony, kicking off the big challenge which will welcome the young entrepreneurs into the corporate world, where they can work on solving real challenges, with a special focus on the urban context.

At Agência de Energia do Porto, Águas e Energia do Porto, Domus Social and São João Hospital, those young entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to perfect and build solutions that combine innovation and technology.

Over the course of two months, through completely remote work, the young participants from all four corners of the world will be able to devise and test new perspectives and creative solutions to the city's challenges, potentially unleashing a wave of innovation in other areas of the ecosystem.

October will be dedicated to analysing and addressing business challenges, while in November the teams will work on idealising, conceptualising and defining a business model that responds to the chosen challenge. At the end of the programme, the teams will have the opportunity to return to the city of Porto.

The Deputy Mayor of Porto, Filipe Araújo, thinks CityXperiment 'brings even greater robustness to the innovation strategy that we have been implementing in the city'.

'We are certain that this is the way to transform and develop the city, as we have been doing, and this additional step is necessary in making Porto an authentic innovation playground, with a technological development experimentation-based culture, in which everyday challenges become opportunities to combine knowledge, science and high-impact solutions that improve everyone's quality of life', the Councillor for Innovation and Digital Transition underlined.

The Councillor recalled that in 2019, the city launched the Porto Innovation Hub, 'the municipal initiative that implements the innovation strategy and unites the ecosystem - academia, research, corporate world, associations, municipal teams and residents - around projects and knowledge sharing in this area'.

'We have paved the way so that, in addition to technical skills, the city is prepared to make the most of the ongoing digital transition', Filipe Araújo remarked.

Applications from EIA participants will be assessed based on criteria such as the size of the problem, market potential, innovation of the solution and the qualifications of the candidates.

The EIA is an academy dedicated to innovation which, this year, brings together more than 650 people, including students and lecturers from various universities around the world, as well as experts, mentors and investors from renowned international companies.