PITCCH has launched the second round of corporate challenges

PITCCH is the first Open Innovation network with a European coverage that aims to facilitate the establishment of structured collaborations between big corporations as technology seekers and SMEs as technology providers and in this way accelerate the market uptake of advanced technologies through different sectors. In the PITCCH network, Technology Centres act as intermediaries between the companies or as facilitators of the development of SMEs/startups’ solutions providing services to the companies. 

SMEs and Startups from the EU Members States or H2020 Associated Countries have a unique opportunity to apply solutions based on advanced technologies to solve the open innovation challenges from big corporations. This time each winning SME receives an award of €15k from the PITCCH network, of which €5k to implement the innovation activities and €10k to access services from one or more selected Technology Centres. Further SMEs and Startups can benefit from free-of-charge brokerage services from the PITCCH consortium.

Five corporations have been chosen to offer their technological challenges.

• Challenge by Electrolux: Food Recognition APP

Electrolux is seeking an SME or a startup that can develop an Android and/or iOS APP with the focus on an algorithm to use the camera of a smart device (e.g. mobile phone, tablet) to detect and recognize a set of food objects and estimate the relative quantity in number or size. The objective is the features, not the interface.

• Challenge by Mondi: Fly Ash as feedstock to speciality materials

Mondi wants to find an SME or a Startup who can provide meaningful solutions to utilize fly ash as an additive to speciality materials and possibly has a technology to compact the fly ash to bring it to the market, improving transport and handling at the customer level.

• Challenge by Repsol: Production of Bio-Butadiene from Ethanol

REPSOL is looking for an SME or Startup to develop a cost-competitive Bio-Ethanol-to-bio-BD technology to reduce CO2 footprint from fossil Butadiene production processes and increase the use of non-food and waste biomass as feasible low-cost feedstock.

• Challenge by SGS: Automated Samplers for Environmental Monitoring

SGS is looking for a partner to develop an autonomous and portable device for the collection and preservation of eDNA for molecular applications, which would greatly overcome all the above and standardized sampling. An innovative and efficient tool for large scale monitoring of ecosystems and biodiversity, and sensitive enough to detect important anthropogenic/environmental changes.

• Challenge by Signify Truly organic 3D printing material

Signify is looking for a partner to develop advanced biomaterials with a bio-origin, where the biomaterial should not degrade in the application, should be 3D printable and fulfil the product requirements like reduced carbon footprint and a new sustainability proposition, temperature resistance, strength, reliability etc.

The deadline for SMEs and startups to submit their solutions is November 15, 2021. Join us on this journey into the future.