Climate-KIC Open Innovation Slam

One of the most exciting things about working with the WE THINQ software, is getting to see what our amazing clients are working on. There’s nothing like seeing an Open Innovation Slam go down first hand, with a software that you are a part of. Which leads me to one of the most exciting initiatives coming out of Europe right now:

The Climate-KIC Open Innovation Slam

It is a pivotal time in Europe right now for climate change. The UN climate summit accompanied by various climate marches took place this past week, and Europeans seem to be ripe with ideas on how to curb climate change. Climate- KIC, partnering with Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), The Berlin Centre for Entrepreneurship, EUREF, and centre for innovation and business creation at TUM are teaming up to host an open innovation slam. The goal of the slam is to find a sustainable alternative to urban transit.

Climate-KIC sums up the problem like this:

“Urban transport is a significant contributor to climate change. About 28% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU presently come from transport, with 84% of that coming from road transport alone. More than 10% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the EU come from road traffic in urban areas.”

Climate-KIC is open to the proposed solutions to this problem, hence the open rather than closed innovation slam. However they did give some guidance to participants:

-Technical solutions to improve energy efficiency of vehicles in urban transport systems, especially in urban public transport

-Changes to secondary systems or parts of these that are used in public transport vehicles (e.g. air conditioning)

-Innovations that could be used across different transport systems (e.g. bus, trams, metro)

-Ways to change driving patterns of vehicles

Over the course of the submission phase, they received over 25 submissions ranging from an e-fleet of electrical busses to solar algae powered bus stops to abolishing busses altogether for inner city tramways. Participants got creative with their solutions. For a sampling of the ideas that were submitted take a look at their Open Innovation Slam page.

How Will Winners Be Selected?

There will be both a community voting round (and the results are already in! See the top fifteen ideas here), each community member was able to cast 5 votes for the ideas they thought were the most sustainable. The next step is for an expert panel to review the top fifteen community choices and select ten finalists. These finalists will get the opportunity to participate in the venture weekend in Berlin in October. From here the top 3 winners will be chosen.

What’s at Stake?

Besides bettering the planet, the top 3 winners will be awarded €95,000 worth of business support meant to help them develop and implement their ideas. They will also win cash prizes (€8,000, €5,000, and €2,000 for the first, second, and third place winners respectively).

Climate-KIC hopes to nurture the most promising and realistic ideas, helping them become a reality.

We will be following up with the Climate-KIC Open Innovation Slam until the winners are announced at the end of October. Stay tuned for more on the future of climate change in the EU!