Call for Startups | Open Innovation Program 2026

How might we responsibly use Agentic AI to help municipal technicians perform the preliminary analysis of building-procedure applications, making the process faster, more consistent, more transparent and easier to manage, while preserving human oversight and administrative accountability?

Comune di Padova wants to improve the preliminary review of building-procedure applications, such as SCIA, CILA and building-permit requests, using responsible Agentic AI.

How might we enable EOLO customer operations teams to collaborate with AI agents through a continuously updated Customer Digital Twin so that every customer interaction becomes faster, more contextual, more proactive, and more effective in protecting satisfaction and retention?

EOLO wants to transform customer assistance from reactive case handling into proactive customer experience management, using AI, Digital Twins and human expertise.

How might we use virtual personas and digital twins, built from Sparks, social media and location data of our customer base, so that we can create hyper-personalised product launches, manage inventory per store, and make every M&S feel like it is “My M&S”?

M&S wants to use customer digital twins and virtual personas to improve how products are launched, stores are ranged and customer communications are personalised.

The challenge aims to combine synthetic Sparks, social media and location data into a simulation layer that helps teams test demand, preferences and launch scenarios before committing stock or activating campaigns.

How might Sicredi proactively support members throughout their financial lives, helping them make better decisions, prevent financial vulnerability and build long-term prosperity?

Promoting members’ financial prosperity is central to Sicredi’s cooperative purpose. This commitment goes beyond institutional sustainability: it means helping members develop the knowledge, confidence and capabilities required to make informed financial decisions throughout their lives.

Sicredi is seeking innovative and scalable approaches that strengthen a preventive financial-support mindset across the cooperative system. The objective is to evolve from a predominantly reactive model, focused on collection, renegotiation and recovery after difficulties arise, towards earlier, educational and personalized support.

How might we enable secure smart charging for Repsol’s residential EV chargers in low- or no-connectivity garages, while supporting real-time power balancing and remote diagnostics at scale and at a viable cost?

Repsol wants to overcome the connectivity limitations affecting residential EV chargers installed in private and community garages.

The challenge aims to identify a secure and cost-efficient connectivity and edge solution that supports charging optimization, real-time power balancing and remote diagnostics across weak, intermittent and no-signal environments.

How might we help Unicaja protect customers from digital scams and social-engineering fraud by identifying risk at the right moment and triggering clear, proportionate and secure interventions without adding unnecessary friction to legitimate journeys?

Unicaja wants to strengthen customer protection against digital fraud and social-engineering scenarios in which customers are manipulated, impersonated or induced to disclose credentials or authorize transactions.

The challenge aims to test a mature, risk-adaptive solution that can detect or contextualize suspicious situations, provide timely guidance or verification, and support customer and employee response while preserving smooth digital journeys.

How might we automatically generate and evaluate construction scenarios for a copper concentration plant planning and control teams so that they can analyze deviations and generate schedule, cost and resource recovery alternatives in minutes instead of days or weeks?

CODELCO wants to improve construction planning and control for a copper concentration plant by moving from static schedules and manual rescheduling toward a more dynamic, parametric planning environment.

The challenge aims to test a generative planning platform that automatically creates and evaluates execution scenarios, combining schedule, BIM, cost and resource information to help teams respond faster to deviations.