Leonardo rewards business ideas from within the Company through its Call for Entrepreneurship

Rome  03 March 2021 19:41

  • The competition Call for Entrepreneurship has been finalised. It is aimed at enhancing Leonardo’s internal know-how with the awarding of three winning projects
  • Ninety-four projects have been presented, with many business ideas applicable to the three strategic strands – digitization, improvements in the quality of life, and augmented services – of the Be Tomorrow-Leonardo 2030 strategic plan
  • We are proud of the success achieved by the initiative which aims to enhance the wealth of knowledge and innovation that we already have within our Company, together with the entrepreneurial skills to move from the idea to the business, and can represent a decisive multiplier for the future development of Leonardo’s business” said Enrico Savio, Chief Strategy & Market Intelligence Officer of Leonardo
  • The three winning teams, with the contribution of a Leonardo’s specialised team and together with industry professionals, will access an acceleration programme with the aim of building Leonardo start-ups.

 

The Call for Entrepreneurship (C4E) competition has been finalised. Through the call Leonardo has selected and awarded ideas and projects born within the Company, which are aimed at sustaining the objectives of Be Tomorrow-Leonardo’s 2030 Plan, the innovation roadmap supporting Leonardo’s long-term sustainable growth.

The winning team has presented the project “Centro di Eccellenza per la Simulazione, la Formazione e la Digitalizzazione in ambito sanitario”. Also on the podium were the projects on the “Sustainable Modular Container” and on the “Safe identification system for drones”, respectively as second and third place. 

All the projects presented are included within the areas of interest identified at the time of the launch of the competition. These relate to the development of ideas to increase digitization, create solutions aimed at improving the conditions of humans and of the environment, and transform, strengthening it, the products’ and services’ offer. These three areas represent the strategic pivots of the Be Tomorrow-Leonardo 2030 growth plan, in its Master the New guideline.

An internal panel, comprised of Leonardo’s management and employees, declared the three winners from a shortlist of ten projects at a virtual award ceremony. Those considered the best among the 94 examined were selected to participate in the final contest. During the digital event, the ten finalist teams presented through a pitch their projects illustrating its strengths. “Innovative chemical imaging microscope for tissue diagnostics and cancer detection” was the most voted project via streaming by the employees.

We are proud of the success achieved by the initiative which aims to enhance the wealth of knowledge and innovation that we already have within our Company and can represent a decisive multiplier capable of developing our future business as indicated in the Be Tomorrow-Leonardo plan 2030. With this initiative, we have introduced a new model. One capable of representing a cultural change which is aimed at seeking innovation in new business models or new value propositions that use technologies, assets and skills already available within the Company and owned by Leonardo’s people. More than 90 projects presented, examined, and characterised by their high quality and depth confirm the value of the initiative”, declared Enrico Savio, Leonardo’s Chief Strategy & Market Intelligence Officer.

The three winning teams will now be supported in a start-up accelerator programme and will have the opportunity to be assisted by dedicated industry professionals, including Gellify – a global innovation platform that selects, invests in and grows innovative high-tech B2B start-ups and connects them to established companies to innovate their processes and business models – to implement their entrepreneurial skills.

The aim of the Call for Entrepreneurship competition is in fact to stimulate and build an entrepreneurial mind set in Leonardo’s people, supporting them in proposing and implementing their business ideas. Among the aims of the initiative is the creation of start-ups, born through a company offshoot. Through the support that Leonardo will provide to the winning projects with this initiative, and also through co-investments, the concept is to transform in the future, into one of the Company’s businesses.

The competition joins Leonardo’s traditional research and development process, which typically looks to the medium-long term, and focuses on business innovation to respond rapidly to market needs with ideas and proposals, concrete and feasible in the short term.

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Description of the three winning projects 

First place 
The project “Centre of Excellence for Simulation, Training and Digitisation in Healthcare” is conceived as a Technological-Cultural Pole dedicated to the Digital Empowering of the healthcare system through a technological and methodological crossover between Aerospace & Defence and Healthcare. The aim in particular is to manage the rapid change that technological innovation and digital technologies impose on the training of human capital in a high-risk sector such as healthcare, with the ultimate aim of reducing the health risk for the patient.

Second place
The project “Sustainable Modular Container” is based on the development of the innovative idea of the Shelter/Container, to cope with the current needs related to pandemics and natural disasters.

Third place
The project foresees provides for the creation and the management of a platform capable of identifying and authenticating devices and operators, securing the exchange of information between users who use the services of the UTM and Urban Air Mobility ecosystem.