Reaching sustainable development goals through focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation. The new challenge that is being backed by FS Italiane is called Innovation for Change. Thanks to this “action learning” programme, fifty young talents from the Collège des Ingénieurs Italia (CDI Italy) and Turin Polytechnic will have the chance to come up with answers to social, economic and environmental problems.
Finding innovative solutions to global issues will be the focus of the work of the start-ups, which have been created and developed as part of the partnership between CDI Italy, Turin Polytechnic and CERN in Geneva. Doctoral students at Turin Polytechnic and the MBA fellows at CDI Italy will be able to take part in the programme.
In line with the United Nation's development goals, there will be eight challenges put forward by the “Challenge Owners”, a group of institutions and large industrial organisations who are involved in sustainability and innovation.
The challenge launched today by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane at the Agnelli Foundation in Turin is linked to stations. These are now seen as hubs, or integrated infrastructure which can provide sustainable and innovative solutions in an urban environment. FS Italiane has looked to these talented young people to find innovative and technological solutions to two problems: building safe parking for bicycles close to rail stations and creating value from waste produced in stations.
The teams that will take part in the Innovation for Change (I4C) programme will be supported throughout their work, from the initial idea all the way to project development, by a network of expert mentors.
The next dates are in March and May, when teams and backing companies will meet again at CERN in Geneva to together assess how the projects are progressing.
The first edition of Italian Tech Week, which will be held in Turin from 25 to 28 June 2019, will be a chance for the teams to talk about their ideas and present the results of their work.