SME4SMARTCITIES awards SMEs who will develop smart solutions for Mediterranean cities

A total of 5 companies from Malaga have managed to attract 50% of the funds for SMEs from the European project SME4SMARTCITIES. A project where BIC Euronova is partner and whose objective is to support technological SMEs in the development of efficient, intelligent and sustainable solutions to the urban challenges faced by Mediterranean cities.

Within the framework of the aforementioned project, at the end of 2021 a call was launched in the Mediterranean area for tech companies to provide solutions to challenges related to smartcities, raised by the participating territories: Genoa, Murcia region and Malaga in Europe and several countries in the Middle East.

The purpose of this call is to distribute 300,000 euros for the implementation of the solutions, with a total of around fifty participating companies, from both shores of the Mediterranean. Of these 50 companies, 5 are based in Malaga (Ynsat, Métrica6 and Owners Partners, Actisa, Soluciones de Movilidad Especiales) and are the ones that have participated hand in hand with BIC Euronova, and managed to win half of the allocated funds, that is to say, 150,000 euros.

With this budget they will respond to the problems of the cities that they have had the opportunity to meet in the different international missions that have been organized and to which they have attended accompanied by BIC Euronova. Last April, they were in Genoa, Italy, with two challenges linked to the sustainability of the city, one to adapt and improve urban environments threatened by climate change, and the other one is a platform for exchanging knowledge on the preservation of cultural heritage. While in May they visited the Middle East with challenges related to water management and the search for solutions for heat islands.

At the end of May, BIC Euronova received different national and international companies and institutions in Malaga, Spain, who came to learn about the challenges presented both in Murcia (intelligent use and monitoring of car parks for people with reduced mobility) and in Malaga itself, to promote electric mobility in the city.

Regarding the solutions provided, the company YNSAT will facilitate the integration of a visual programming interface that guarantees easy access for everyone to satellite data relevant to the Genoa region, making it possible for the general public to process and understand aspects of interest such as pollution levels.

On the other hand, the company Owners Partners (a company of the Métrica6 group), seeks a new concept of sustainable mobility in the city of Malaga, creating an infrastructure of smart recharging and disinfection nodes for personal mobility electric vehicles (VMPs). It will be responsible for R&D&I in the area of electronics and control, as well as the development of the business model and its industrial protection.

Métrica6 with WAISENSE (international brand for innovation in the water sector) aims to increase the efficiency of distribution and consumption facilities through adapted solutions for leak detection, flow monitoring and other parameters, as well as to increase water quality for domestic consumption and for agriculture, in the projects to be carried out in , deploying a series of patented technological solutions based on sensors, actuators, communicators and databases with which to reduce water stress in the region.

The company ACTISA will participate in three of the challenges. In the city of Malaga, it will develop the structural and photovoltaic design of the smart canopy for recharging electric skateboards, as well as the mobile management application. In Genoa, it will update its own IRMAPP (Intelligent Route Management Application) application for the App Store and Play Store, and will include a module for observing air quality data. The entire public transport network of Genoa will be implemented, as well as taxi drivers in the city and access will be given to the City Council for the publication of information of interest to users. In the Middle East, they will collaborate with Métrica6 for the development of two prototypes: one of them for the hydraulic modeling of the drinking water network; the other will carry out the design of water treatment solutions for domestic use to improve its quality.

Soluciones de Movilidad Especiales, through their platform Park4Dis, will provide information on the People with Reduced Mobility (PRM) of several municipalities in the region of Murcia, integrating with sensors that will allow users owners of the EU parking card for people with disabilities to know the availability of these spots, thus facilitating their inclusion and displacement. The local administration will count on a set of management tools for PRM spots and EU parking cards, which will allow them an efficient control of the improper use of these spots, as well as card fraud.