The València City Council, through València Innovation Capital and The MotherTrees Innovation Ecosystem innovation ecosystem, has presented the new VLC City Lab program, an open innovation initiative that aims to activate entrepreneurial talent to address strategic city challenges, such as the dana, with «real technological solutions.»
The Councilor for Tourism, Innovation, and Investment Attraction, Paula Llobet, has explained that the first challenge posed by this collaborative space is «a key issue,» resilience to climate change and extreme phenomena such as danas, as reported by the city council in a statement.
The councilor emphasized that this initial challenge represents «a great opportunity for València’s climate resilience.» «We know that phenomena like the dana and climate change pose increasingly frequent and complex challenges, and we want València to be prepared, to develop innovative tools and strategies that allow us to anticipate and mitigate their effects,» she stressed.
«It is crucial to have the talent and innovative capacity of our ecosystem, promoting scalable solutions that make València a benchmark in climate resilience,» she expressed.
Under the title ‘València, a resilient city against extreme climate phenomena,’ the first challenge of VLC City Lab will focus on finding innovative and scalable solutions to help the city anticipate and mitigate the effects of climate change and phenomena such as the dana that impacted València and its metropolitan area last October.
«From sustainable infrastructures to climate prediction technologies, the goal of this challenge is to make València a reference in urban climate resilience through collaboration between public and private sectors,» she emphasized.
As outlined by its promoters, VLC City Lab goes beyond launching challenges and incorporates a structured methodology in three phases: diagnosis, exploration, and co-creation, which will be carried out in an intensive nine-week program.
Selected companies will be able to validate their solutions in València’s Urban Sandbox, a testing environment that allows for testing innovations in a real setting.
CHALLENGES DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Participating companies can develop solutions aligned with urban challenges caused by climate change around five key axes: intelligent and sustainable reconstruction after the dana; resilient urban infrastructure with technology and innovation; efficient water management and smart drainage systems; early prediction and response through advanced technology; and urban solutions to combat extreme heat and water scarcity.
Proposals can range from the use of recycled materials or drainage infrastructures to the deployment of IoT (Internet of Things), AI, climate sensors, renewable energy networks, or sustainable urban cooling strategies.
The implementation of VLC City Lab is made possible by the collaboration agreement between the València City Council and The MotherTrees Innovation Ecosystem. This agreement will allow the design and coordination of open innovation challenges with the active involvement of large corporations, SMEs, startups, and technological centers.
Llobet emphasized the importance of the participation of different sectors in this open innovation process: «Open innovation is a driver of urban transformation. We seek the involvement of large corporations, SMEs, and startups to build high-impact solutions.»
«APPLICABLE AND HIGH-VALUE SOLUTIONS»
In this context, she pointed out that from the València City Council, through València Innovation Capital, they are committed to a public-private collaboration model that «allows us to address the city’s strategic challenges with innovative and effective solutions.»
«VLC City Lab is born with the purpose of connecting leading companies, SMEs, and startups with the real challenges of our city. Collaboration among different ecosystem actors is key to generating applicable and high-value-added solutions,» she explained.
During the presentation day of the VLC City Lab project, a working session was also held for companies interested in participating in this initial challenge. In the meeting, companies had the opportunity to learn about collaboration opportunities, share ideas, and co-create impactful solutions.
«With VLC City Lab, our city strengthens its position as a hub of innovation in southern Europe and takes a further step in its commitment to a more sustainable, intelligent, and resilient urban model,» concluded Councilor Paula Llobet.
