The 4th edition of the Altice International Innovation Award (AIIA) was held on 18th of November.

Held in an online format (you can consult here), due to the pandemic scenario in which we find ourselves, the event was preceded by the usual Q&A session by the Grand Jury to the 6 finalist projects that, during 1h30m, were asked about the most diverse details of their projects, information that served to evaluate and select the 2 winners, one from each category in the contest:

  • Startup category: C-mo project: the revolutionary cough-monitoring wearable, by Startup Medical Solutions. This project consists of a wearable that monitors cough and aims to revolutionize the way diagnoses of diseases in which cough is a symptom are conducted, the way the progression of predominantly respiratory conditions is controlled (such as asthma, COPD, COVID-19 , among others), as well as the method of how the efficiency of the implemented therapies is tested.
  • Academy Category: Passive Backscatter Sensors for the Internet of Things applications project, by Researcher Ricardo Correia, from the University of Aveiro/IT. This project aims to develop a passive sensor that uses a radio frequency to transfer data and another frequency to receive energy that is emitted by transmitters.

Alcino Lavrador, General Manager of Altice Labs, opened the prize giving session and during his speech, he recognized the difficulty that is, nowadays, “creating something new and with value”. He congratulated the ideas and hard work of all the finalists of this 4th edition, emphasizing that “the work of innovation that can change the world can be here, it can be in Portugal”. In addition to highlighting the quality of the projects in the competition, Alcino Lavrador also congratulated the jury’s work on analyzing the applications and evaluating the winners. At the end of his speech, he challenged all the participants to “continue to improve people’s lives by doing different things, never failing to aspire and to want to go further, because that is what makes us all progress as a society”.

Alexandre Fonseca, Executive President of Altice Portugal, stated that the AIIA is “a combination of the business world and the academic world”, taking into account that, among the 116 applications collected in this year’s edition, the majority are young people and students who intend to succeed in this innovative world. ”

Altice Labs is the author and facilitator of AIIA, leading the entire process of defining and promoting the award, both with startups, through ENTER, and with the academy. It also plays an important role in mentoring and monitoring the integration of the winners in the different organizational contexts in the Altice Group and in the global market, being able to create value in its portfolio of products and solutions with the integration of the awarded projects.

AIIA offers to the 1st place in the Startups category a cash prize in the amount of 50 thousand euros and the possibility of completing a pilot (proof of concept) with the Altice Group, with a minimum duration of 9 months. To the winner of the Academy category, the AIIA offered a monetary value of 25 thousand euros. In addition to these categories, the initiative also featured the Born from Knowledge (BfK) distinction, the result of a partnership with the National Innovation Agency (ANI). This distinction is attributed to the finalist project “born from knowledge” that best results from research and development (R&D) activities, thus valuing national scientific and technological knowledge. In this edition, this distinction was attributed to the already awarded C-Mo project.

Since 2016, the AIIA has received more than 300 applications, with the eight winning projects now representing a total investment of more than € 275,000 and in 2018 and 2019 this award covered not only Portugal but also France.