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Forty-one French and international start-ups said they were ready to tackle seven challenges launched on October 10, 2018, as part of the first edition of the Smartport Challenge contest. The identity of the seven winners, selected at the end of December, will be revealed on February 7th at a press conference.

A tight schedule, two months, seven technological challenges for a great innovation contest ... Forty-one start-ups have responded to the challenge launched by Naval Group, La Méridionale, Les Terrasses du Port, EDF, Interxion, CMA CGM and the port of Marseille-Fos. Seven challenges include improving the berthing of trailers and containers, providing travelers with real-time information, protecting against cyberattacks and improving the port's energy performance.

A fab giant lab at thecamp!

Companies had until December 10, 2018 to apply on the Smartport Challenge website. Of the forty-one files submitted, the contractors selected eighteen corresponding to the criteria of the competition.

These start-ups presented their vision of the challenge for 20 minutes during a grand oral at the Palais de la Bourse on 20 December. At the end of an intense day of auditions, seven seduced the seven juries for both their visionary side and their determination to evolve the commercial port thanks to their gray matter.

"We hesitated a lot between the five responses we received for our challenge. The selected project really makes sense, it really corresponds to what we had imagined. A special agreement between the Hammerson group and the start-up will govern the framework of this experiment ", explains Marie Canton, director of Terrasses du Port. A dedicated team has even been formed around experts in digital and marketing, seconded by the parent company. "It is also possible to pool skills," adds Marie Canton.

In terms of experimentation, large groups do not forbid anything! This is indeed to build a real project team between the various contractors.

See you in June at the Smartport Day

This work of open innovation in pairs is accompanied by a division of tasks and a legal framework. Each project subject to a specific agreement according to the criteria of each (confidentiality, industrial property, commercial terms ...). Experiments will begin February 4 and 5, 2019 at thecamp, during the first Sprint. The project team, bringing together the partners of the challenge (GPMM, AMU, CCIM-P and thecamp) will supervise the seven pairs to solve the technical issues, co designer a product, build a business model.

Two more sprints will be held on April 2 and May 14 to take stock of this long-term co-construction. In June 2019, after six months of intense work, the seven proofs of concept (POC) and experiments will be officially presented during the Smartport Day, event intended to promote the actions within the Smartport in Med.

The seven winners will each receive an endowment of € 15,000 and will benefit from the visibility of this event. Not to mention the contact with the contractors. A beautiful reference for start-ups ...