Digital District Open Innovation Programs

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”». With this famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, closed his speech last Thursday, July 15, in his speech during the presentation ceremony of the Open Innovation Programs focused on sectors so fundamental to our territory such as tourism, health, climate change and the prevention of natural disasters.

These open innovation challenges also meet another of the main objectives of the Digital District, which is to extend the technological ecosystem throughout the entire Valencian Community. And it is that the development of these programs, which will involve the implementation of at least 17 companies in the ecosystem of the Digital District, will promote the creation of a cluster focused on Climate in Vega Baja, another focused on Health in Gandia and a third dedicated to the Tourism sector based in Benidorm.

In this endeavor, Distrito Digital is called upon to play a leading role as a “factory of technological creativity, in a laboratory of the knowledge economy, and at the node of a network system that will contribute to innovation to structure our territory”, as also advanced Ximo Puig.

With the so-called Open Innovation Challenges, Comunitat Valenciana Digital District also promotes the attraction of companies and projects from around the world to the territory of the Valencian Community. These programs or challenges will offer new business opportunities to companies in the digital ecosystem and the whole of the Valencian Community, and will facilitate the transfer of knowledge to the productive fabric of the region. As if that were not enough, once these pilot projects have been successfully tested, the innovation solutions may be exported to other territories.

Putting off the challenges

The official presentation or launch of these challenges had the participation of the Regional Councelor of Universal Health and Public Health, Ana Barceló, of the regional secretaries of Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition, Paula Tuzón, Security and Emergencies Jose María Ángel, and Tourism, Francesc Colomer, and the intervention of the Regional Councelor of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, Carolina Pascual, who closed the event.

In addition, the general director of the Comunitat Valenciana Digital District, Antonio Rodes, and the teams of the companies that are carrying out the organization of the challenges intervened: the UTE Globaldit-Innova Next in Tourism, the UTE AGBAR-Gellify Iberia S.L. in Climate Change, and Innsomnia Accelerator SL. in health.

Digital transformation

All of them agreed to highlight the importance and urgency of effectively carrying out the digital transformation in the sectors of tourism, health, climate change and the prevention of natural disasters.

Carolina Pascual, valued that “initiatives like this one enhance the specific fabric of each area and contribute to economic reactivation and the promotion of research and technology, creating new occupation niches and retaining talent “.

Antonio Rodes, in this sense, stressed that “in its day innovation was an option of excellence, but today it is already a necessity for survival”.

Along the same lines, Ana Barceló, opted for Public Health to advance at the same speed as society and be capable of adapting to present and future challenges, and valued that open innovation programs such as those promoted by Distrito Digital “help to generate alliances within the innovative ecosystem and facilitate digital transformation processes in the field of Health “.