A kit for detecting HPV, a collaborative mobile app to help people with disabilities check the accessibility of specific locations, and a financial solution that provides access to care homes for people in need are the winners of the third edition of the Fundación MAPFRE Awards for Social Innovation, which are promoted by IE University.
• Antonio Huertas: “The pandemic has speeded up a lot of discussions on making significant changes that had been put on the back burner, and it has reminded us all that we are part of a single community. Social innovation is more necessary than ever, and Fundación MAPFRE is going to continue supporting it.”
• These three projects, from Spain, Brazil and Peru, were chosen from among more than 200 initiatives submitted by researchers and entrepreneurs in Latin America and Europe.
• The three winners will each be allocated 30,000 euros to develop their projects and have also had access to a mentoring and coaching program from IE University, the academic partner of the Awards.
• The call for the fourth edition of the Awards opens tomorrow, Friday 30 October.
Madrid, 29 October 2020. A simple, low-cost, automatic kit for analyzing DNA samples, HOPE (Peru), which identifies high-risk strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV), the cause of cervical cancer; a collaborative mobile app, GUIADERODAS (Brazil), that allows people with disabilities and limited mobility to check and review the level of accessibility of a particular location; and a financial solution, PENSIUM (Spain), that makes it easier for dependent seniors to fund their own health and social care, whether in a private facility or at home, without having to consider selling their home. These are the three winners of the third edition of the Fundación MAPFRE Awards for Social Innovation, promoted by IE University, that will each receive prize money of 30,000 euros to develop their projects.
The event was attended by Antonio Huertas, president of Fundación MAPFRE, who emphasized the ultimate goal of these awards, which is to “improve people’s lives and support the most vulnerable among us”, and the fact that they are taking place in the midst of a pandemic, “which has even further highlighted social inequality and deficiencies”. In this respect, he noted that “every crisis represents an opportunity” and that these awards are a prime example. “The pandemic,” he pointed out, “has speeded up a lot of discussions on making significant changes that had been put on the back burner, and it has reminded us all that we are part of a single community, and that instead of seeing ourselves in competition we should be being mutually supportive if we’re going to come out of this crisis in better shape.” The winners and finalists, he added, have come up with “genuine solutions to real problems, and will have a significant social impact”.
239 candidates and three winners
Held as a competition and organized around three geographical regions – Brazil, the rest of Latin America, and Europe – the aim of the Fundación MAPFRE Awards for Social Innovation is to implement proposals that seek to resolve and improve specific aspects in the areas of health, mobility and insurance innovation.
A total of 239 projects were received for this year’s Awards, which were created and submitted by scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and university and business school students, among others.
Just 26 projects – considered to be the most innovative and with the most positive social impact – were selected for the three regional semifinals, which this year were held online. They also benefitted from a mentoring program to boost exposure for their projects.
The nine finalists presented their projects at the grand final to a panel made up of experts in social innovation, social impact and the worlds of business and technology, who selected the projects that not only had the greatest potential for making a social impact but were also most likely to succeed from a technical, financial and organizational point of view.
The panel hailed the high quality of the projects, which bring to bear innovative and effective solutions to solve some of the social problems afflicting different regions of the world.
Red Innova: more than 60 entrepreneurs from all over the world
During the course of the awards, the more than 60 entrepreneurs who form part of Red Innova, an international community set up by Fundación MAPFRE and IE University, were actively engaged in developing free products and services to help reduce the impact of COVID-19 on society.
Fourth edition of the Fundación MAPFRE Awards for Social Innovation
Friday 30 October sees the official opening of the fourth edition of the Awards, “with the intention of inviting the whole world to take advantage of the lessons learned from the pandemic, and to come up with creative solutions that will enable us to tackle the huge challenges ahead of us”, explained Antonio Huertas.
This fourth call will be open until 30 November and on this occasion the categories will be Health; Accident Prevention and Safe and Sustainable Mobility; and Ageingnomics, a new category that seeks out initiatives that will help to foster active ageing, targeted at improving the quality of life of people aged between 55 and 75.
You can find all the information on the next edition of the Awards at:
https://premiosinnovacion.fundacionmapfre.org
All the information on this year’s finalists and winners is available at: https://www.fundacionmapfre.org/fundacion/es_es/ayudas-becas-premios/premios-fundacion-mapfre-innovacion-
