Inspiring Solutions 2023: vote for your favourite!

Inspiring Solutions is IASP’s knowledge sharing programme that celebrates new initiatives and best practice in science parks and areas of innovation worldwide, bringing global visibility to their work supporting their companies and communities.

Out of a pool of strong contenders sharing bright ideas from around the world, our expert panel selected 10 finalists from Brazil, Estonia, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey and the USA. But only three of them can win!IASP members are now voting for their three favourite solutions, which will be announced live on September 14th in a special ceremony at our upcoming World Conference, IASP Luxembourg. Join us there for the big announcement!

The 10 finalists (in alphabetical order by organisation) are:

Krakow Technology Park, Poland “Idea Development Camp: crowdfunding edition”

A comprehensive support program to show crowdfunding as an effective method of financing a startup. It consisted of 4 training sessions, a feedback session, and a pair of events called: ‘Pitching Fight Club’ and ‘Failure Night’, and preparation of written materials constituting a compendium of knowledge on social financing.

Kyoto Research Park, Japan, “Innovation from HVC Kyoto (Healthcare Venture Conference Kyoto"

HVC KYOTO is a community that supports the business development around the world of startups with innovative technologies in the healthcare field. It has become one of the largest healthcare pitch events in Japan, and is a sustainable community that is part of Kyoto’s international innovation ecosystem.

Linköping Science Park, Sweden “Brilliant Mentors of the Future”

The Brilliant Mentors of the Future is a reverse mentorship program that connects business leaders with university students to create pathways for sharing knowledge and experience. The aim is to increase companies' ability to attract young talent and for students to learn more about the business community.

Porto Digital, Brazil “Embarque Digital”

The Embarque Digital is the largest IT training and inclusion program in Recife. It has doubled the number of IT students in the city, increased the level of tenant companies in the park and increased both the employability and income of its students.

Research Triangle Park, USA “Boxyard RTP"

With its track record for robust innovation, R&D and cutting-edge entrepreneurship, there were ample success stories at RTP, and now with a ‘downtown’ district, RTP has become a vibrant community.

Singapore Science Park, Singapore “The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab”

The Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab is Singapore's first industry-led lab for the development of smart cities.  The Lab functions as a resource integrator, bringing together industry leaders and players – tech startups, system integrators and global corporate enterprises - to create solutions for smart cities, from ideation to testing to commercialisation.

Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol, Estonia “AI Development Program”

This program enhances the implementation of AI technologies through a series of development sprints where the matchmaking between AI challenge owners (private companies) and innovative tech providers is conducted. After matching, there is a 2-day hackathon mission to develop an implementation plan. The best projects receive up to 100k€ grants for piloting.

Technological Park of Viçosa – tecnoPARQ, Brazil "Advance Coffee”

Advance Coffee is a pre-acceleration program for startups. Aimed exclusively at developing technological and innovative solutions for the coffee industry’s chai of production, it boosts both established companies and nascent projects by providing knowledge, opportunities and connections.

Technopolis, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand “Services for the food industry”

By utilizing the the food services ecosystems to address gaps in the product development pathway for food industries, this approach is built upon two distinct mechanisms: the inside-out and outside-in. Both of these mechanisms support the local community with knowledge and technologies while also enhancing the university's research and technological capabilities.

Teknopark İstanbul, Turkey “Helpcube Acceleration Program“

​Helpcube Acceleration Program aims to develop and commercialise technological solutions for natural disasters and emergencies.

Full details of their bright ideas and how they work can be found here and in the accompanying playlist: join us at IASP Luxembourg to find out who the three winners are!