Collaboration with <cu> startups</cu>

Collaboration with startups is essential to provide innovative responses to the new challenges facing the port environment.

Barcelona is the third European destination preferred by entrepreneurs according to the Startup Heatmap Europe 2020 ranking, confirming the importance of the innovative ecosystem in the city, allowing Find the startup with the most relevant value proposition for the challenge to be solved or improved. Programmes such as the Smart Catalonia Challenge or Ports 4.0 encourage the generation of talent by presenting projects by entrepreneurs that nurture innovation in ports.

The accelerators put companies or institutions in contact with the start-ups that can respond to their needs and the Port of Barcelona Strategic Plan provides for the creation of a benchmark innovation hub worldwide, physically located in the port area or surroundings, oriented to maritime transport, logistics, port management and the blue economy.

The Founder Institute is an accelerator that collaborates with the Port through the Port Challenge Barcelona, a joint and specific acceleration programme for the port-logistics sector. On the other hand, Barcelona Tech City, a project promoted by local entrepreneurs that represents more than 1,000 companies from the city's technological ecosystem, also works closely with the Port of Barcelona.

In order to successfully introduce innovative solutions, large companies must accompany start-ups by providing information, data, contacts and resources so that they can display their knowledge, creativity and agility. This involves the definition, planning and formalisation of a pilot programme to verify that the technology works in a real environment, taking into account all the possible variables that may occur, as well as the definition of the objectives and their implementation.

< p>The Port of Barcelona, as a public administration, has the obligation to protect the contributions of start-ups and if the pilot works successfully, move on to the phase of implementation and integration into corporate systems including the allocation of a budget for its execution.