Eight teams selected for the first stage of Desafío Avante 3

A total of 32 participants make up the groups moving on to the next stage of the open innovation challenge led by the Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile) and Know Hub Chile. Through their health-focused science and technology proposals, they aim to become sophisticated suppliers to the defense sector and the civilian market (dual technologies)

The Desafío Avante 3 call, which closed on January 30, drew strong participation. A total of 40 teams answered the call to solve the Chilean Navy’s scientific and technological problems in the open innovation challenge run by the Chilean Navy and Know Hub Chile.

On Friday, February 24, a new and decisive milestone was reached: the teams that will take part in the first stage of the initiative were announced. Of the forty applications, eight teams were selected, with a total of 32 participants. All of them address more than one challenge focused on active health, with the aim of modernizing the preventive medicine model based on data. 75% are science- and technology-based ventures, and 25% are led by a woman.

The evaluators, who had the important task of scoring and selecting the competing teams, were Javier Ramírez, executive director of Know Hub Chile, and Chilean Navy officers Héctor Cifuentes, head of Research and Innovation, and Eugenio Álvarez, head of Preventive Medicine.

“As the Avante 3 team, we are very happy to say that we now have eight selected teams, with whom we will be working together with the Chilean Navy on its challenges,” said Jovanka Trebotich, technology transfer coordinator at Know Hub Chile and part of the Desafío Avante 3 team.

“The potential solutions selected reflect the diversity of ways to approach this edition’s active health theme, and we see not only EBCTs but also research teams from higher education institutions. After this important milestone, we begin working with these teams, starting with the Bootcamp to be held next week in the Valparaíso Region,” Trebotich added.

The eight selected teams will receive 4 weeks of training in the Dual Tech methodology, starting classes on March 8. During this stage, they will be supported by a team of experts, facilitators and mentors responsible for providing methodological and practical tools to the innovators and entrepreneurs taking part in the program.

Avante 3 agenda: what comes next?

On March 8 and 9, a bootcamp will be held, where the selected teams will take part in an immersion activity in the institution’s problem. They will receive intensive in-person training that will give them practical knowledge to boost their capabilities and projects. At the same time, they will be able to visit the different areas of naval health to understand the problem as a whole and thus present a better solution proposal.

Then, after the first four weeks of training and a selection pitch before a panel of experts, four teams will be selected, each receiving CLP 2 million to develop their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to validate the proposed solution and its value proposition. In parallel, the selected teams must design a work plan for implementing a higher-resolution MVP in a real environment during the next phase of the program.

Finally, in mid-May, the four teams will once again present to a panel of experts, who will choose the two winners to receive funding and support to carry out their proposed plan and bring the technology closer to its dual market. They will receive up to CLP 90 million in total, shared between the two teams, to implement the technology development and implementation plan submitted in the previous phase.

The 8 selected teams and their leaders are:

1- WILDSENSE LTDA: a comprehensive system for monitoring and tracking physical and cognitive-motor health, led by Marcos Zúñiga.

2- YO ME CONTROLO: a digital preventive medicine platform that facilitates access to early diagnosis and timely treatment of chronic diseases, led by Macarena Castro.

3- CENTRO GERÓPOLIS UV: a health risk assessment and prioritization methodology that will make it possible to visualize and define users according to Preventive Medicine policies, criteria and priorities, led by Pablo Reyes.

4- MEDBYTE CHILE: a web platform that centralizes information from data capture and structuring processes for Artificial Intelligence analysis to identify patterns and optimize Preventive Medicine, led by Juan Pablo Miranda.

5- VITZANA: a system that collects data directly from people’s experience and processes it to define risk indices, led by Diego Sánchez.

6- GIA TECH: an Artificial Intelligence-based ecosystem that brings users’ medical records together in one place, led by Lorena Gutiérrez.

7- AMANDA: a remote monitoring platform with a device that allows patients’ vital signs and health parameters to be taken wherever they are, led by David Vidal.

8- TELEKER: a geolocated information platform that enables targeted actions and the definition of health policies based on information from forms and medical devices, led by Fabian Pie.