20 Sep 9 FINALISTS WILL PITCH ON 17TH OCT SOCIAL INNOVATION AWARDS

Author: Gustavo F-Mazarambroz, Director of  Mapfre Foundation Awards

9 finalists out of 462 candidates will defend their projects on 17th October 2018 in Madrid. 3 candidates from LATAM; another 3 from BRAZIL and the last 3 from EUROPE will pitch on e-Health; Security & Mobility and Insurance innovation categories. If you want to assit to the event press HERE.

Three of these nine semi-finalists will show out the enormous potential of their ideas that, for sure, help people and transform their lives.

We all remember the impact of the film Inception. History, far causes and motivation are critical to understand the present. Following this criteria, one of the most important lessons that we can take from the difficult selection of the Fundación MAPFRE Social Innovation Awards boosted by IE, is that there are at least 2 different kind of projects from the point of view of the inception.

Firstly, the idea that becomes a reality as a result of a first-hand experience from the founder, and which tries to solve a problem of great impact. This is the case for the majority of finalists, for example: OLIBER (Orthosis for people with atrophied hands, which provides autonomy for performing daily activities) Chile; BEABA (Demystify the treatment of cancer for children in treatment through gamification) Brazil; MJN (Early warning device on epilepsy attacks) Spain; COMUNIDAD 4UNO(domestic staff system that dignifies workers thanks to savings procedure and health coverage) Mexico; LAZARILLO (voice translation system of the environment –inside and outside buildings- for blind people) Chile and BLITAB (adapted tablet device for blind people) Austria.

The second kind of project is one that started from a business model and, on its journey to development, integrated a social impact mission. This is the for projects like: PLUVI.ON (real-time and low-cost weather monitoring platform that uses IoT and AI to send early warning alerts to companies) Brazil; ZUMPY (Smartphone app that aims to reduce the number of cars on the streets of big cities, making it easier for people with the same destination to move together safely) Brazil and SCOOBIC (a novel motorcycle-inspired vehicle with the capacity to courier around cities and reduce pollution) Spain.

Each social innovation founder, project and solution addresses a deep impact in society and is our engine to continue on this impactful ecosystem. From the IE Social Innovation Department, we are proud to help those who are changing the world.