CRATIFI REWARDS THE MARRIAGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND CREATIVITY
08/01/2015 -
From tablets for blind people to crowdfunding platforms designed to meet artists’ needs; from imaging systems that can provide three-dimensional, coloured ultrasound scans to software designed to monitor the performance of skiers on the slopes, in addition to an app that certifies the authenticity and origin of artworks and artistic items. There are 12 Italian startups among the 15 winning companies that will receive the funding provided by the CreatiFI European project, an initiative that sees Trentino Sviluppo as manager of the Southeastern Europe hub.
Back in September, an open call promoted by the CreatiFI Consortium in the Italian hub managed by Trentino Sviluppo saw the participation of 60 startups that presented a series of software ideas based on creative content or designed in order to meet the needs of the creative industry. Following this, in the middle of December, 30 semi-finalists coming from Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Germany, and France competed at the Technology Pole of Rovereto during a two-day meeting in which they presented their ideas and works. At the end of the competition, 15 selected winners - 12 Italian startups and 3 foreign ones - received a grant of 10,000 euros to develop a prototype of their software. Among the 12 Italian startups, 6 were from the Autonomous Province of Trento. «The panel of judges was made up of foreign experts - explains Luca Capra, coordinator of the CreatiFI project for Trentino Sviluppo - and the European funds granted clearly attest the sound position of our innovative companies».
Two check-up meetings have been scheduled for April and August; on these occasions, a panel of judges will evaluate whether the startups are working coherently and effectively and, in the case of positive results, they will receive a further 40,000 euros. During the Fall of 2015, a second open call will be launched to allow companies to place their prototypes on the market. The best ideas will receive an additional grant of 100,000 euros, bringing the total eligible amount of non-refundable grants to 150,000 euros.
Last Fall, 322 startups coming from all across Europe took part with an eligible project in the CreatiFI open call. In addition to the 15 winners in the Trentino hub - headquartered in Rovereto - 45 winners were selected in the hubs of Helsinki, Barcelona, and Brussels.
WINNERS IN THE ITALY AND SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE HUB
One of the winning ideas comes from Bulgaria; it concerns a tablet called Blitab that isdesigned for blind and partially sighted people and employs a Braille system for embossed writing and reading without the use of mechanical elements. Another winning idea comes from Friuli Venezia Giulia and is called EasyUSE, an imaging system for prenatal ultrasounds that can provide 3D, coloured scans that are richer in detail and more realistic compared to those delivered by current technology.
Among the winning projects selected by the panel of judges there is also Teach.me.now, a product devoted to the teaching over the Internet of performing arts, a sector in which the audio-video interaction is crucial. This project represents an example of an idea born in Trentino, as well as Smart Attention Tracker, a product that is able to track where the attention of museum and art gallery visitors is focused; HI-FIS, a tracking system that measures individual performance on the ski-slopes of Trentino and the Alpine range; Ergo Creo, a digital meeting space for designers and 3D modellers; CLMS, a product described by its developers as a «CMS/LMS platform that can manage advanced user interfaces (holograms, ultra HD)»; and finally SoLoMon, a cloud platform toolkit that increases consumer experience through the use of smartphones.
Then, there is CrowdARTS, a crowdfunding platform created in Basilicata and used for the pre- and post-production stages of art events or the events linked to the art or entertainment industries. Fonesmart is a web application developed in Lazio that allows for the creation, testing, and distribution of smartphone mobile applications. GiPSTech, from Calabria, is a database platform that collects maps to provide geo-localisation services inside buildings, while the developers of Veneto present Personalizable_TTS, a «web service that can read aloud written texts by recreating in detail the voice of a specific person». Then there is Proofy, a web application developed by a startup in Lombardia that is used to protect copyrights and tackle counterfeiting by issuing a certificate of authenticity and origin for specific artworks and artistic items.
Finally, Links2gamer is a software developed in France and devoted to the development of digital games and the promotion of an easier and safer distribution of content in the gaming world, while REACTI-FI is an app coming from Serbia that gathers the data coming from different devices to create «a new kind of interaction between user and technology».