Through ‘Technovation Girls’, a program aimed for boys and girls between 10 and 18 years old to develop mobile applications that provide solutions to different issues in society.

Valencia, December 13, 2021.- More than 1,700 young Valencian girls have already passed through the four editions of ‘Technovation Girls Comunitat Valenciana’, the largest technological entrepreneurship contest intended for girls worldwide, from the American non-profit association, Technovation. On Saturday, the prize-giving ceremony was held for the teams that reached the regional finals of the 2020 and 2021 editions. The event was held at the Príncipe Felipe Museum at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.

This program challenges girls every year to change the world through technology. It is a competition in which, grouped by teams and supported by the help from mentors, contenders can create their own apps that solve real social issues. In the Valencian regional scope, this program is led and promoted by the company Talent Growth Management (TGMBP) on behalf of its CEO María José Valero, accompanied in the 2021 edition by the Valencia City Council, through Valencia Activa. Collaborators include The Valencian Engineering Board, Edicom, Schneider Electric, the Official College of Agricultural Technical Engineers, Cogiti, the College of Public Works Technical Engineers, NTT Data, American Space Valencia, Capgemini and BIGBAN Private Investors.

This program is also supported by Generalitat Valenciana, the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Jaume I University. In addition, Diputación de Castellón, Google, Cuatroochenta, Chair of Innovation, Taronja TIC’s, and others, also collaborate.

Since the last edition of Technovation held in the Valencian Community, the Finnova Foundation has collaborated through this initiative by launching challenges inspired by real projects in which the foundation acts as a beneficiary entity. The objective is to serve as a source of inspiration for girls and boys to develop their mobile applications, while promoting female entrepreneurship and bringing European projects closer to younger audiences.

One of these challenges, based on the LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 project, encouraged a group of girls from Abecé de Gandía School to develop an app, for the reuse of organic food waste. The winners of the challenge promoted by Finnova, were invited to the ceremony to promote their app ‘’Comen!’’. At Finnova, children and young people from all over Spain are invited to join the challenges of this new edition. The winning team will be awarded a trip to the heart of Europe, to have a first-hand the institutions of the European Union in Brussels. This award is made possible thanks to project being linked to the Startup Europe Awards program within the DG Connect of the European Commission, which has been promoted by the foundation since 2016.

In turn, the European finalists from the 2020 edition of Technovation Girls, the #Girls On team, were also invited to the event, featuring their Blue Duck application, created for the preservation of La Albufera. Finally, the Technovation Girls 2021 Edition World Finalists are the Girls4STEM team and the Hidden Women application, which aims to open visibility to outstanding women who triumphed throughout history for their talent and contributions to society.

During the awards ceremony, Pilar Bernabé, Deputy Mayor of the Area of Innovative Development of the Economic Sectors and Employment of the Valencia City Council, made her promise that the City Council will be a partner for the launch of the Hidden Women app. “data are pushing administrations to be feminists. We want girls to have no limits, which is why we support programs such as Technovation Girls CV and promote campaigns such as #DoneStem, to make the work of scientists and technologists visible and thus create benchmarks,” stated Pilar Bernabé.

For her part, María José Valero announced that, among the novelties of the next edition for 2022, “our objective of getting to work with disciplinary and mixed teams” stands out. As she explains, “we are all proud of the great talent of these girls because it is necessary to foster companies that aim to create a better world.”