• The Valencian Community Awards Ceremony for the world’s largest technology entrepreneurship competition for girls and young women was held on Saturday at the Auditorium of the Universitat Politècnica de València.

More than 160 young participants and 40 teams competed in the regional final of Technovation Girls Comunitat Valenciana, the world’s largest technology entrepreneurship competition for girls and young women. The event took place last Saturday at the School of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (ETSIAMN) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).

The programme challenges participants to change the world through technology. Working in teams and supported by mentors, the girls design and develop their own mobile applications to solve real social challenges. In the Valencian Community, the initiative is led and promoted by Talent Growth Management (TGMBP) under the leadership of its CEO, María José Valero.

Reflecting on the event, María José Valero said: “I’ll remember the words of the judges, who left feeling highly motivated and optimistic. They see that, thanks to the talent, technological entrepreneurship and determination of our young people to solve today’s challenges, our future is in good hands.”

The awards ceremony was held in the Paraninfo (Auditorium) of the Universitat Politècnica de València. The Gold, Silver and Bronze teams in the Beginner category have now advanced to the international semi-finals, while the successful teams in the Junior and Senior categories will be announced next week.

During the event, additional awards were also presented for the Technovation Challenges sponsored by Finnova, València Innovation Capital, and Encom. These challenge categories are open to mixed-gender teams, provided that a girl acts as the team’s spokesperson or leader. Each sponsoring organisation proposes its own challenge, aligned with the Technovation curriculum, and rewards the winning teams with unique educational and training experiences.

Now present in more than 100 countries, Technovation Girls inspires girls and young women to pursue careers in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) while developing entrepreneurial, leadership and financial skills.

Technovation Girls Comunitat Valenciana is led by Talent Growth Management Business and People (TGMBP) and is sponsored by the Innovation, Technology, Digital Agenda and Investment Attraction Department of the València City Council, with the collaboration of American Space Valencia, ACM UPV Chapter, the School of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (ETSIAMN) at UPV, València Innovation Lab, and other partner organisations.

The regional final was also supported by UNICC, GFT, NTT DATA Europe & LATAM, EDICOM, Grupo Tragsa, Schneider Electric, Tusser Systems, Cerwall Solutions, Life Cole, Espai ’70, Ford, Capgemini, CITOP, COGITI, and Flor de Mayo.