Ferrovial Servicios, with the cities of A Coruña, Málaga, Santander, Sevilla, Valencia and Vitoria, has chosen six innovative technology solutions from entrepreneurs to improve municipal services. This initiative is part of the “Cities Open Challenge by Ferrovial” programme, which is focused on entrepreneurship, innovation in cities, and citizen participation to transform city living.
Ferrovial, together with the city governments of A Coruña, Málaga, Santander, Sevilla, Valencia and Vitoria, has selected six innovative entrepreneurial solutions for improving municipal services. The solutions will be implemented on a pilot basis. “Cities Open Challenge by Ferrovial” is an initiative focused on entrepreneurship and innovation which aims to identify transformative solutions for smart city development. Each city proposed a specific challenge to stimulate innovation and improve services to citizens, and it chose the best innovative solution from among the proposals. The six solutions are currently in the phase of defining and implementing pilot projects.
The criteria applied by the jury, which was comprised of representatives of the cities and of Ferrovial, were: alignment with the challenge, the possibility of pilot testing, innovation, scalability, and impact in economic, environmental, cultural and political terms.
“Cities Open Challenge by Ferrovial” is part of Ferrovial Services‘ strategy to work with cities in implementing innovative initiatives, enhancing services using the most innovative solutions, and contributing to the development of society by supporting entrepreneurship.
The chosen solutions were:
- A Coruña, “Connecthings”: tagging of urban furniture and public spaces in the city, with links to an application and the city’s website to provide users with instant information.
- Málaga, “ReCollect”: a project aimed at helping local residents define the days for waste collection rounds, so as to coordinate demand and delivery of the service.
- Santander, “Ouner”: a virtual lost property office. A website and a mobile app enable users to register personal belongings so that, if they are lost, the owner can be found.
- Sevilla, “GUAU”: system for finding lost pets using iBeacons, which identify and track objects in their vicinity. The system also encourages interactions between pet owners.
- Valencia, “Clickcole”: a platform providing updated information on the education system, promoting collective organisation and smart use of the city’s resources.
- Vitoria, “Moovit”: a collaborative app dealing with public transportation. It allows users to plan routes, track routes on the fly, check timetables, etc.
“Cities Open Challenge by Ferrovial”, a programme managed by the company’s Centre of Excellence for Cities and its Innovation and Processes Department, is one of the many programmes being undertaken by Ferrovial Servicios, such as the “Madrid Smart Lab” programme to support entrepreneurs and the Research Center for Intelligent Cities, a joint initiative with the City of Santander and the University of Cantabria, among others.
This initiative enables the company to renew its commitment to accelerating and developing entrepreneurship and innovation, two of the hallmarks of Ferrovial since its foundation over 60 years ago.
