Open Call for “The Innovation Game 2024-25”

 Deadline Date: November 15, 2024

 Donor Name: Italtel

 Grant Size: Not Available

The project “The Innovation Game”, launched by Italtel SpA, a co-innovation initiative that aims to promote the development of new ideas in collaboration with startups and innovative SMEs, capable of creating value for the company by solving real problems or enabling new business opportunities.

The best candidate startups will work with the Italtel people who originated the project ideas and the colleagues of the Technical Unit to develop a complete Business Plan. The works will then be presented to the competition jury, made up of the Italtel management team, who will evaluate them based on their sustainability and their ability to generate value for the company. The projects deemed valid will be funded!

Journey

• Level 1: Idea Generation
  • Italtel people team up and develop innovative ideas in response to the company’s strategic challenges.
• Level 2: Co-Innovation
  • The best proposals are selected for the co-innovation phase, where startups and Italtel people team up to create a business plan and present it to the investment committee.
• Level 3: Implementation
  • The proposals that prove to be solid and capable of bringing value to the company are implemented in collaboration with Startups!

Challenges

• The ideas accepted into the competition had to respond to at least one of the following Innovation Needs expressed in the agenda:
  • Challenge 1 – Ital-X: Idea that enables the creation of new commercial proposals in line with the new paradigm XaaS. The commercial proposal may envisage the development of platforms and/or Italtel apps that can be provided to our customers also in logic managed services. For this proposal there is a particular interest in exploring also vertical alternative sectors such as, for example: Agrifood/Tech, Industrial, Smart City, ports and airports, Smart Land.
  • Challenge 2 – Utility Revolution: Idea that enables the creation of new commercial proposals in the energy sector with particular interest towards the dynamics related to the growth of renewables (community energy, energy efficiency and energy storage). When formulating the proposal, consider the market of interest constituted by utility operators but also by players who want to play an active role in the value chain of utilities, finally reaching the prosumer (so called consumers and producers of energy).
  • Challenge 3 – AI Superpower Unleashed: The idea to enable the introduction of Artificial Intelligence to increase the value of Italtel’s offer, by automating the functionality or agenda in a way to assist the user during operation. Also considered of interest are «stand-alone» solutions that have AI as a key element and that can constitute new elements of the commercial offer.
  • Challenge 4 – Knowledge Hub: Ideas of solutions and projects that help the company to improve the dynamics of internal communication across all the companies of the group and across the diverse countries. The objective is to make communication and sharing of useful information internal to the company simpler and more familiar, but also to create a really useful knowledge base.
  • Challenge 5 – Time for School: Ideas of solutions or initiatives that will help the company to intercept and promote the training of young people with technical skills starting from school institutions in Italy and all’Estero. Solutions and projectuality that will help us get in touch with students and make our company more familiar even to all new generations.

Eligibility Criteria 

• The call is aimed at all companies established as innovative start-ups pursuant to the Start-up Decree (Legislative Decree no. 179/2012 converted into Law no. 221/2012 and subsequent amendments and additions) and to companies that benefit from the regulatory framework applicable to innovative start-ups or which, exclusively or predominantly, operate in the field of technological innovation regardless of their date of incorporation.
• In fact, companies that are not established as innovative start-ups (for example, SMEs may also be admitted innovative), which demonstrate that their main corporate purpose is the development, production and marketing of innovative products or services with high technological content.

Evaluation Criteria

• The projects will be evaluated by assigning scores with reference to the following 8 criteria:
  • Time to Innovate
    • The following will be evaluated: the degree of simplicity of the solution and the degree of speed of implementation.
  • Presentation
    • The effectiveness of the Start-up presentation and the proposed candidate will be evaluated.
  • Innovative Solution
    • The following will be evaluated: tools, technologies, methods and models.
  • Feasibility
    • The proposal’s ability to maximize the cost/benefit ratio will be assessed.
  • Market Potential
    • The attractiveness of the solution to the market will be assessed. In the case of solutions aimed at Italtel as a customer, this criterion is not applicable.
  • Maturity of the Solution
    • Previous references and proof points to support the reliability of the solution.
  • Solution Consistency
    • The degree of adherence of the proposal to the requests set out in the challenge will be evaluated.
  • Team Solidity
    • The following will be assessed: skills, implementation capabilities and organization.

For more information, visit Itatel.