An initiative by Fondazione Pesenti and Speed MI Up rewards new businesses focused on emergency management—from earthquakes to floods. Applications close on April 22, 2019. Winners will receive six months of free incubation.
Following the success of the first call—which drew strong interest from experts and media and featured a compelling selection process—Fondazione Pesenti and Speed MI Up are renewing the challenge. Starting today, Wednesday, February 27, 2019, a new call is open for the selection of startups and businesses working on major risk events such as floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfires, and droughts. Applications must be submitted via the website fondazionepesenti.speedmiup.it by April 22, 2019. The two most promising projects will be awarded six months of free incubation at Speed MI Up.
The project is named SHaReD, which stands for Social Hazards Resilience in Disaster. It is the result of a joint effort by Fondazione Pesenti, Bocconi University, and Politecnico di Milano.
Its goal is to support the creation and growth of innovative startups in the field of natural disaster management, including seismic, volcanic, wind-related (hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons), hydraulic (floods), hydrogeological (landslides), drought, and fire events.
Startups must propose new ideas in the areas of prediction, prevention, emergency response, and post-emergency assistance, guided by the “Three Ps” formula: prevent, predict, plan. Special attention will be given to projects that aim to create a sort of interstate “insurance” system (based on mutual aid, shared risk, and resilience networks).
Sergio Crippa, Secretary General of Fondazione Pesenti:
“Finding new solutions for such a complex topic as major risk management is not an easy challenge.
That’s why we’ve established technical and evaluation committees made up of top experts in innovation and emergency response. And that’s why we’re counting on fresh perspectives that can only come from the younger generations. The response from startups and the work of the committees during the first call were exceptional. The Foundation has thus renewed its commitment, confident that this second edition will bring forward and support even more innovative ideas.”
Alvise Biffi, President of Speed MI Up and President of the SME Division of Confindustria Lombardia:
“After reviewing the high-quality projects submitted for the first SHaReD call, expectations for this second round are very high. My invitation to all startups and anyone with an innovative idea is this: step up and take the challenge! The committee is looking for a disruptive idea that will surprise and challenge them. We look forward to seeing you—and to your ambition to improve the world.”
The new call is open to aspiring entrepreneurs and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises with a registered and/or operational office in Milan or its province—or willing to relocate there within three months of the incubation process starting in June 2019.
Launched in November 2018, the first SHaReD call led to the selection of Isaac, a startup that began its incubation at Speed MI Up in February 2019. Isaac developed and patented a device designed to counteract building movement during seismic events by reducing oscillation amplitudes and minimizing the risk of structural collapse and damage.
“It is quick to install, non-invasive, competitively priced, and outperforms other systems currently on the market,” say Isaac’s engineers. The system also enables continuous monitoring of buildings, analyzing their stability and safety—a valuable tool for post-earthquake structural assessments.
Speed MI Up is the business incubator of Bocconi University and the Milan Monza Brianza Lodi Chamber of Commerce, supported by the Municipality of Milan. It’s more than just a co-working space: it actively accelerates startup development by encouraging goal-setting, offering tailored individual and group mentoring, and helping startups refine their strategic, managerial, and financial approaches as well as their business plans to secure external funding.
Fondazione Pesenti fosters modern forms of interaction between the public sector, private for-profit and nonprofit sectors, creating sustainable solutions to today’s major social challenges. Its focus areas aim to promote and support initiatives that have a positive impact through the creation of socially meaningful new businesses—especially those driven by the new generations.
CS Speed MI Up secondo bando SHaReD
fondazionepesenti.speedmiup.it