On 28 November 2022, the European Innovation Council (EIC) joined forces with the municipality of Las Rozas Madrid to co-host an EIC ePitching to Procurers session. Five EIC innovators were selected to pitch their innovations to the Spanish municipality, in the hopes of fostering new business opportunities.
Las Rozas de Madrid, one of the largest townships and municipalities in the autonomous community of Madrid, Spain, is aiming at piloting, purchasing and deploying through procurement SMEs and innovative solutions in the area of Urban Low Emission Zone applications of Artificial Intelligence technologies to improve air quality in the city. To get a better perspective on the European market they enlisted the help of the EIC Innovation Procurement programme. After the event, we talked to Councillor Jaime Santamarta Martinez.
What can you tell us about Las Rozas’ approach to innovation procurement and its development these past years?
We created our Public Innovation Company of Las Rozas City Council, Innova, two years ago, with the aim to accelerate innovation processes in the city. It’s a long-term project for us, it should be the channel through which we can develop many different projects for Las Rozas in the upcoming years. In addition, Innova allows us to attract talented people with a lot of experience in innovation. Moreover, we decided to facilitate innovation in all contracts that were being procured from the side of the Council. In every procurement, we promote innovation by giving 5% of the rating to innovative solutions. All in all, we took quite some steps to facilitate the process of innovation procurement these past years.
What were the main reasons for joining the EIC for this event?
Working together with other organisations, especially on the European level, allows us to align our projects with the European strategies that are being developed. Working specifically with the EIC is a very good opportunity for us. Firstly, to promote Las Rozas as a city that invests in innovation. But secondly, also to get in touch with companies that are working in other parts of Europe, who are developing solutions that could be implemented in our city. We thought that having the opportunity to listen to these pitches, could bring us closer to the European market.
Could you tell us if you already found some interesting opportunities in the companies that pitched?
We saw many interesting aspects of the different companies. We believe it could be a good opportunity to ‘pair’ them with other companies, for example, Spanish ones, that are more used to procuring in Spain. There was a company that was developing digital models, which is one of the most important points in the challenges we posed. It would be a great opportunity for them to join forces with companies that are more used to Spanish procurement, thereby facilitating the process for all parties.
On a final note, what advice can you give to startups and scaleups that would like to work with Las Rozas?
There are many interesting solutions out there, be it in the Spanish market or the European one. Many times, I find very interesting solutions from companies, but they just have to be tweaked for certain purposes. In our particular case, try to think of the local dimensions of your innovation or business: what local impact can it have and what needs to be done to achieve this?
EIC Business Acceleration Services
This opportunity is brought to you by the EIC Business Acceleration Services. If you’re looking for opportunities to connect with some of the largest public and private procurers of innovation in Europe, make sure to check our events calendar often to grab the best opportunity to take your business to the next level.
