The i2CAT Foundation and the Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration invite you to transform Catalonia’s natural areas

The 8th edition of the Smart Catalonia Challenge is with the Rural Agents Corps

Today, the Rural Agents Corps announced the challenges to be solved with an innovative ICT solution in the new edition of the SmartCatalonia Challenge, the open innovation competition promoted by the Ministry for Digital Policy to boost SMEs and startups to deal with cities and entities needs. This new edition is focused on the rural environment, with four challenges that aim to protect the natural environment. Dani Marco, Innovation and Digital Economy director, and Marc Costa, managing director of the Rural Agents Corps, chaired the online presentation. 

The four challenges for the 8th edition of the Challenge are: 

• Improvement of the monitoring of wildlife species: this challenge aims to find a solution to ensure a long lifespan of the monitoring and tracking systems of animals in danger of extinction. 
• Automated predator expulsion systems for extensive livestock: this challenge aims to develop an automated system for expelling, ensuring the safety of cattle and horses, while protecting the ecosystem.
• Access control systems in natural spaces: this challenge aims to develop an innovative solution capable of facilitating, optimizing, and automating the process of controlling access to certain natural spaces to ensure their environmental protection.
• Drones or other technologies to control and capture ungulates: this challenge aims to develop a system to improve the tracking, control, and capture processes of wild boars and other ungulates species. 

If you wish to participate the registrations are open until the 31st of May. Follow this link to enroll: the finalists will be announced in June and invited to participate in the Finale, where the winners will be selected. The three winning proposals will be awarded €15.000, €3.000, and €2.000, respectively. The winners will perform a pilot test with the Rural Agents Corps. 

You can see the live presentation here. 

Original source: Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration of the Government of Catalonia