MED'INNOVANT Challenge : Call for Solutions for the Mediterranean City of Tomorrow

Innovators, meet the challenges of a changing world !

Take up one of the 5 challenges and be sponsored for 1 year by a partner associated with the contest !

 The list of 2021 challenges is as follows :

• Challenge #1 : Co-design and co-build tomorrow's urban facilities with users

Theme: Control of use

Sponsor: Etablissement Public d'Aménagement Euroméditerranée

• Challenge #2 : Develop mechanisms to promote the circular economy in development

Theme: Soil and materials

Sponsor: Saint-Gobain Bâtiment Distribution France

• Challenge #3 : Support residents in a different way to reduce the energy footprint of housing

Theme: Energy

Sponsor: ENGIE

• Challenge #4 : Design comfortable, low-carbon buildings at a price that is accessible to its buyers

Theme: Building

Sponsor: REDMAN - EIFFAGE - Saint-Gobain Bâtiment Distribution France

• Challenge #5 : Social innovation as a lever for a more resilient, productive and inclusive "solidarity city

Theme: Economy and urban solidarity

Sponsor: ICI MARSEILLE

Earnings and benefits for the winners

High added value packages for a 1-year support combining FINANCIAL BOOST and SUPPORT PACKAGE, for a concrete business anchoring, targeted connections and a PUSH VISIBILITY.

• FINANCIAL BOOST :

54,000 € to be shared between the winners 5 Challenges --> 5 "JURY PRIZES"

• TERRITORY PASS :

1.  An experimental laboratory to test and demonstrate the innovative solution: the Euroméditerranée EcoCity*.
2.  A personalized visit** of the Public Development Establishment's intervention perimeter with a Euroméditerranée representative in order to study the potential fields of application of the winning innovation

* 480 hectares located in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 14th and 15th districts of Marseille.

**A total of 6 hours that can be used over a period of 6 months from the award ceremony.

• ACCELERATION PACKAGE :

1.  A 2-hour work session with the Director of Economic Development and the Head of Innovation at Euroméditerranée to define the implementation methods for the award-winning solution in the Euroméditerranée EcoCité area
2.  Organization of a 2-hour meeting with the sponsor of the award-winning challenge (monitoring the deployment of the award-winning solution within an ad hoc steering committee, etc.)
3.  Free integration (soft landing) during 3 months within the P. Factory accelerator
4.  Legal support by FIDAL : a 2-hour working meeting on intellectual property and information technology law, contract law, corporate law, real estate law
5.  A 3-month access to the ICI Marseille shared manufacturing facility and to its "Coup de main" support program for the winner of the DEFI #5 prize (a 1-month access for the winners of the 4 other challenges)
6.  Targeted contacts with partners associated with the competition and relay structures (incubators, gas pedals, competitiveness clusters, etc.)
7.  Integration into EMUL (Euroméditerranée Metropolitan Urban Lab), a network of Euroméditerranée's industrial partners that works to develop innovative solutions for sustainable Mediterranean cities.
8.  A free one-year membership to the Euroméditerranée Entrepreneurs' City (an economic association co-financed by the Public Development Establishment that aims to animate and network more than 250 business leaders who wish to be associated with the economic dynamic carried by the Euroméditerranée EcoCity)

• PUSH VISIBILITY :

1.  5-minute pitch, in front of the general public, during the "Jury's Award Ceremony - Challenges 2021" (November 23 at La Coque - Marseille)
2.  Press and social network communication, website, trade shows, ...
3.  Broadcast on Euroméditerranée's youtube channel of a video interview of the winner presenting his innovative solution.

Some history...

• Innovation at the heart of building the new Marseille

For more than twenty years, the Etablissement Public d'Aménagement Euroméditerranée (EPAEM) has been designing, developing and building the sustainable Mediterranean city of tomorrow at the heart of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis.

The operation of national interest, piloted by the State and local authorities, concentrates more than 37,000 private jobs and 6,500 public jobs within its perimeter and has led to the establishment of more than 5,300 companies.

The 480-hectare development project, located in the heart of Marseille, France's second largest city, includes public facilities, shops, offices, housing, transportation and parking facilities, urban parks, etc., in order to promote community living.

Today, Euroméditerranée is the third largest business district in France.

But Euroméditerranée's vocation extends beyond the international business district and its 650,000 square meters of office space. Indeed, piece by piece, the puzzle is falling into place, interweaving public and private facilities, commercial offerings, residential buildings, transportation and parking infrastructures, parks and public spaces. However, the operation led by the public institution is not yet complete. It is now continuing on 170 hectares north of the initial 310 hectares, and is entering a new phase.

Labeled an "EcoCity", the development operation is intended to be a territory for experimenting with sustainable urban development in order to test, deploy and develop innovative services and technologies to simultaneously meet the challenges of connectivity, comfort, quality of life, overall cost control and environmental performance.

To support its ambition, Euroméditerranée has opened up to all innovative companies and created MED'INNOVANT more than ten years ago: a competition for innovative solutions that accelerates the development of eco-innovative projects from startups that are able to respond to issues in line with the new development and sustainability imperatives of Mediterranean territories.

• The themes of the sustainable Mediterranean city

EPAEM is developing a global open innovation approach that encompasses the following fields

• Multi-energy smartgrids
• Urban digital services
• Nature, city and public spaces
• Demonstrator buildings
• Optimization of the water cycle
• Waste management
• Soil and materials management
• Soft and low-carbon mobility

An OPEN INNOVATION Competition on Mediterranean Soil

MED'INNOVANT is a competition for innovative solutions - organized by the Etablissement Public d'Aménagement Euroméditerranée (EPAEM, https://www.euromediterranee.fr/) - that accelerates the development of eco-innovative projects by startups that are able to respond to issues in line with the new development and sustainability imperatives of Mediterranean territories.

MED'INNOVANT is part of an operational vision for the implementation, in the short or medium term, of test projects and demonstrators in the Euroméditerranée EcoCity (480 hectares in the heart of Marseille, France's 2nd largest city) and more broadly in the Aix Marseille Provence metropolitan area (https://www.euromediterranee.fr/ecocite-euromediterranee).

This competition brings together industrial partners - including ENGIE from the outset - who support the developer in its OPEN INNOVATION approach and who want to meet innovative and creative entrepreneurs !