We have started the 7th edition of the EDP Innovation Prize, an initiative that rewards young talented entrepreneurs. The support for the development of innovative ideas is the great objective of this EDP Group project, which in its curriculum already includes several successes in the field of clean technologies in the energy sector.
The EDP Innovation Award aims to support business startup projects, which have technologies or innovative business models in the following areas:
- Energy efficiency; Electric mobility;
- Information technologies applied to the energy sector (including smart grids, remote management systems of energy consumption and monitoring systems and diagnostic of energy consumption or equipment);
- Wind generation;
- Solar generation;
- Offshore electric generation;
- Other forms of electricity generation;
- Energy storage;
- Energy distribution;
- Natural gas;
- Internet of Things;
- Machine to Machine.
Applications must be submitted on the project site until the 31st of May. The competition is open to groups of two to five members; startups formed less than a year ago and all participating teams or startups may participate, as long as all the members have an academic level corresponding to at least the last year of a bachelor's degree.
This initiative is an innovation challenge, encompassing different sectors and stakeholders such as funders, universities, technology centers and members of the national scientific community.
EDP Starter, the incubator of the EDP Group, has had a very active role in the Group's support for entrepreneurship.
About 30% of startups that are supported by the EDP incubator come from the EDP Innovation Award, which proved to be an important driver for ideas to effectively get off the ground and give rise to new businesses and create new jobs. Examples are the successes of Zypho, Omniflow and Vertequip, who despite not having won the EDP Innovation award, are now successful companies, growing, targeting venture capital investment and going through an important process of international expansion.
The EDP Innovation Award thus appears as a strong driver of technological entrepreneurship in Portugal.