"If you have a startup, the Innoidea program is the best way to get a first objective, scientific and technical validation that your project has consistency, something essential before taking on greater risks. " It is the advice of someone who has gone through it, specifically in the 2020 edition. For Mario Garcés, director of The Mindkind, "Itainnova has all the necessary profiles to accompany this process in the event that it is viable, and that will give you It gives security and company, something fundamental at the beginning, especially if you are an individual entrepreneur, as was my case.
The Mindkind is a company located in the Huesca Pyrenees, in Castejón de Sos, specialized in the development of algorithmic general artificial intelligence, "that is, we intend to develop systems that learn, reason, make decisions and behave as human beings do" clarifies Mario Garcés. The director of this startup decided to join the Innoidea program "to convert the neuroscientific functional model into a cognitive architecture, which was the previous step to develop algorithmic artificial general intelligence (AAGI) systems." Thanks to one of his mentors, who invited them to present themselves, "we saw that Itainnova had almost 15 years of experience in artificial intelligence and cognitive architectures:"It was the perfect ally to begin that path of 'translation' from neuroscience to technology." Their participation extended from September 2020 to March 2021.
A new edition of Innoidea is now taking off , the Government of Aragon's action to support entrepreneurs, through Itainnova , aimed at the creation and consolidation of new companies ('startups') through technological acceleration.
Miguel Ángel García Muro, from the Strategic Innovation and Exploitation of Results team at Itainnova, indicates that the objectives pursued by this call are "to create and consolidate new companies through technological acceleration through the validation of the market approach, sustainability, as well as such as technical and economic feasibility" . Itainnova's technical team and its ecosystem contribute their experience and knowledge, "both in determining the approach and needs of the startups and the participating entrepreneurial teams and in the development of technological and innovation projects."
At the current time, new uncertainties are added to the usual ones when starting a business . "The trends observed at a global level are not very promising –acknowledges García Muro–. Among the challenges facing the business world and society as a whole are sustainable development, employment in an increasingly digitalized environment ", the social gaps and the uncertainty that is being generated for a very different future, and even more so taking into account the latest events that have occurred globally, such as the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine."
Despite everything, he encourages "companies, and specifically entrepreneurs and startups: they must assume leadership through digitalization and sustainability as an opportunity to respond in an innovative way to the challenges they face." society today.
The pandemic has also had an impact in this area. In his opinion, "starting a business has always been a risk, so if a pandemic also arises, the difficulty increases exponentially." But he points out that " it is precisely in times of uncertainty when the creativity of entrepreneurs works faster and opportunities arise."
In the case of The Mindkind, the path continues: "Two years after our time at Innoidea, both the Itainnova team and ourselves are still 'hooked' with the project, trying to unravel together the secrets of the human mind to turn them into technology," says Garcés. Now, in addition, they have financing thanks to a Neotec project that CDTI has granted them and in which Itainnova has a significant participation as technological support.
Technological services
In recent calls, Itainnova's help in the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MPV) has been directed towards two types of technological services :
Industry 4.0 Technological and sustainable innovation projects in aspects related to industry 4.0 such as big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain and digital twin.
Safety and health requirements In other cases, after the definition of the product and the market to which it is directed, the work carried out has consisted of the study and performance of tests to comply with technical requirements related to safety and health for its market launch.
Balance
Since the launch of the new Innoidea program in 2020, a total of 22 projects have completed the technological acceleration process . In the 2020 call, 21 applications were received, of which 12 went to phase 1 and 11 of them, to phase 2. In the 2021 call, 12 of the 19 applications received went to phase 1 and 11 of them , to phase 2.
As an economic result, Itainnova highlights that, through this program, they have helped five companies from the 2020 edition to apply for competitive public financing at the regional and national level (technology bonds, PAIP and Neotec); These companies have obtained financing of 871,100 euros on a budget of 1,318,784 euros (66% subsidy).
There are still no results from the companies that participated in 2021 at this time, since the projects ended at the end of last year, but there are already collaborative projects planned.
