Desafios Porto is a competition created by Câmara Municipal do Porto (Porto City Council)  in partnership with NOS,EDP, CEIIA e EY, that aims at identifying, in a first phase, the biggest challenges faced by the city of Porto and, in a second phase, at finding the tech solutions that give the most innovative and scalable answers.

By participating in Desafios Porto you will be actively contributing to address problems that the city faces every day. If your challenge is selected, you will also receive a prize.

If you are an entrepreneur with innovative solutions that can have an impact on the day-to-day life of a city and its citizens, Desafios Porto is the perfect showcase for your project. Besides being able to show your skills while working on real problems you will also have access to a total of 250,000 euros in funding and specialized technical support. Each solution will be financed up to a maximum of 50,000 euros and will get up to 12,500 euros of specialized technical support.

Desafios Porto is divided into the following phases:
1) Search for challenges: 11 June -1 August
2) Challenges submission: 1 September
3) Search for solutions: 1 September -15 October
4) Announcement of the Finalists: 16 November
5) Presentation of solutions and selection of winners: 23 November

In order to participate the citizens only have to identify a challenge faced by the city of Porto that can be solved through technological/innovative solutions, and included in one of the four categories specified.

Challenges should be submitted through a proper form available at Desafios Porto website (www.desafiosporto.pt/en) between 11 June 2015 (00:01) and 1 August 2015 (23:59 included).

No, each citizen can submit several challenges in each of the four categories.

Challenges will be selected by a panel of Judges composed by members of Câmara Municipal do Porto (Porto ), partners of the competition and independent specialists, according to the following criteria: Innovation; Impact on the city; Replicability; Boost the development of the innovation ecosystem of Porto.

The four categories to submit challenges are: Health and wellbeing; Energy; Digital City and Mobility and environment.

The author of each selected challenge (maximum sixteen challenges) will receive a prize.

Only national and foreign companies with a business model clearly focused on one of the four categories can apply to solve one of the selected challenges. Since Desafios Porto aims at boosting the local entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem, it will give priority to companies and consortium based in the region, as presented in the evaluation criteria.

Solutions should be submitted through a proper form available at Desafios Porto website (www.desafiosporto.pt/en) between October 6th 2015 (00:01) and November 15th 2015 (23:59 included). Each candidate must attach the following information to the application form: a PowerPoint presentation (maximum of 10 slides) and the budget for the implementation of the solution. Desafios Porto reserves the right to declare any entry ineligible if the form is not properly filled or if the attached information does not comply with the specifications.

No, only companies formally established can submit solutions. Since Desafios Porto aims at boosting the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem, the maturity of the companies will be an important element, as presented in the evaluation criteria.

Yes.

You can submit solutions to one of the four challenges selected previously in each category (there will be sixteen challenges). The four categories are: Health and wellbeing; Energy; Digital City and Mobility and Environment.

No, each solution must be directly related to only one challenge.

You can only submit your solution to one category.

The applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria: Innovation; Impact on the city; Replication possibility; Boost the development of the innovation ecosystem of Porto.  

Solutions will be selected by a panel of Judges composed by members of Câmara Municipal do Porto (Porto City Council) , partners of the competition and independent specialists, according to the following criteria: Working Plan; Innovation of the proposal; Quality of the team; Budget; Impact of the proposal in the future development of the company (notoriety and proof of concept). Only one solution per category will be selected.

The finalists will be announced on 16th of November 2015. The finalists will present their solutions and answer to any questions from the panel of Judges in the final ceremony of Desafios Porto, occurring on 23rd of November 2015. The panel of Judges will then determine the four winners (one in each category) and announce them during the Ceremony mentioned above.

Each solution will be financed up to a maximum of 50,000 euros, accordingly to their budget to implement it in Porto and later on repeat it in other cities. Each winner will also get a maximum 12,500 euros of specialized technical support.

The parties undertake to keep confidential the contents of all the information they have access under this initiative, including intellectual property and industrial property, even after the end of the competition, except to the extent strictly necessary for the implementation of this initiative and what is strictly necessary for the dissemination and promotion of Desafios Porto. Desafios Porto will not be responsible for any intellectual property infringement, misuse or plagiarism by another candidate or company outside this competition.

No. Only the winning solutions will be implemented in the city to solve the selected challenges.

Yes, it is a priority for Desafios Porto that the solutions are highly replicated.