• The City Council, through València Innovation Capital, is collaborating with Nealis Innovation Hub on the launch of the Nealis Innovation Challenge, a call for proposals to identify technological solutions for the city
• The selected start-ups will be able to test their proposals in Valencia’s Urban Sandbox, accelerating the development of technologies to improve the management of critical infrastructure and urban services

Valencia is taking a further step towards establishing itself as a leader in open innovation with the launch of the first edition of the Nealis Innovation Challenge, a programme driven by Nealis Innovation Hub with the support of Valencia Innovation Capital, the innovation strategy of Valencia City Council. The initiative aims to connect start-ups, emerging companies and technology projects with real-world challenges relating to the management of urban services, the security of critical infrastructure and data-driven decision-making.

Thanks to this collaboration, the selected solutions will be able to be developed and validated in the Valencia Urban Sandbox, a real-world environment that allows new technologies to be tested before they are rolled out, helping to ensure that innovation reaches the public and public services sooner.

Paula Llobet, Councillor for Tourism, Innovation and Investment Attraction at Valencia City Council, emphasised that “open innovation is one of the most effective tools for transforming the challenges facing our cities into opportunities. At Valencia Innovation Capital, we work to connect entrepreneurial talent with the real needs of businesses and institutions, promoting solutions capable of having a positive impact on people’s lives”.

Llobet added that “Valencia’s Urban Sandbox has become a strategic resource for accelerating innovation, enabling start-ups and businesses to validate technologies in real-world conditions. Initiatives such as the Nealis Innovation Challenge demonstrate the value of collaboration between the public and private sectors in building a smarter, more sustainable and more competitive city”.

The call for entries has been launched with the aim of matching entrepreneurial talent with specific business and urban needs, fostering collaboration between companies, start-ups and institutions to develop technologies capable of addressing some of the key urban challenges of the present and the future.

In this first edition, the Nealis Innovation Challenge sets out two strategic challenges. The first aims to develop solutions based on advanced digital models that enable incidents to be anticipated and decision-making to be improved. The second focuses on developing technologies capable of detecting gas leaks at an early stage to enhance the safety and efficiency of urban networks.

The challenges have been defined by Nealis Tech based on real business and urban needs, with the aim of identifying solutions that will help build a more efficient, safe and sustainable Valencia, one that is prepared to face the challenges of the future. Thanks to the support of València Innovation Capital, the selected start-ups will be able to validate their proposals using real resources and spaces in the city, thereby facilitating their scalability and future implementation.

Participating companies must have mature technologies and the capacity to develop pilot projects in collaboration with Nealis’s business, technology and innovation teams. Proposals will be assessed on the basis of criteria such as their degree of innovation, level of development, potential impact and ability to be integrated into real-world operational environments.

The call for applications will remain open until September and is aimed at start-ups and technology companies with solutions capable of addressing any of the challenges set out. The selected initiatives will have access to a real-world validation environment, receive specialist support and work alongside Nealis’s teams to develop pilot projects with practical applications. Full details of the programme, the eligibility criteria and the registration process are available on the official website of Nealis Innovation Challenge.

This initiative forms part of València Innovation Capital’s strategy to strengthen the city’s innovation ecosystem through collaboration between public authorities, businesses, universities, technology centres and start-ups. Through tools such as the Urban Sandbox, Valencia City Council is driving the development and validation of innovative solutions that enable urban challenges to be tackled from an open, collaborative perspective aimed at generating a real impact on the public.