Jerónimo Martins, a member of the Técnico Partner Network, is a Portuguese food distribution and specialised retail group. It is present in Portugal, Poland and Colombia, operating more than 5000 shops, 555 of which in Portugal under the “Pingo Doce” brand, employing more than 130 thousand employees and its shops are visited by around 5 million consumers every day.

It believes that investing in innovation is one of the fundamental pillars for sustainable development.

“To democratise access to quality products and food solutions through a strategy geared towards value creation, defined by a philosophy of sustainable development.”

The TecInnov Jerónimo Martins Competition therefore aims to create proofs of concept created around challenges launched by Jerónimo Martins and of particular relevance to its business and strategy for the future.

If you have an idea that you believe may have legs to walk then this is your opportunity!

Target Audience

The TecInnov Jerónimo Martins 2023 Competition is open to undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students from the Instituto Superior Técnico.

The teams must be composed mainly by members of the academic community of Técnico.

Themes

• Improve logistical efficiency, respecting HACCP for each of the flows and taking into account the time windows for receiving orders, delivery from suppliers and deliveries to customers.
• Developing a system/equipment that can produce energy from offshore renewable sources to supply the power pontoon and the various pieces of equipment used in operations.
• Create a piece of equipment that is capable of picking up box after box from a pallet that comes with the boxes closed, opening them and putting them back on another pallet in order to make this activity more efficient and less stressful.
• TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) comparison between the current fleet and a potential electrified one. The limited access to the centre of large cities for non-polluting vehicles, the need for more sustainable modes of food distribution, the consequent reduction in inherent costs, the reduction and emission of polluting gases (decarbonisation of the fleet), a more structured operation and the measurement of all these factors.
• Study of the use of the additive Carrageenan (E 407) and/or processed Eucheuma algae (E 407a) and their possible replacement by other alternatives.

Dates

• Submission of applications – 18 September to 09 October 2023
• Evaluation of applications/Pre-selection – until 13 October 2023
• Summary presentation of each shortlisted application (pitch) – 16 to 20 October 2023
• Final selection and dissemination of results – until 27 October
• Implementation of the Proofs of Concept – until 27 April 2024
• Follow-up meeting – January 2024
• Presentation of results – May 2024

Support

In the Jerónimo Martins 2023 edition of TecInnov, support will be granted up to a maximum of €2,500.00 (two thousand five hundred euros) for each project submitted and selected in the competition, totalling €10,000.00 (ten thousand euros).

Award Criteria

1. 1. Projects will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Competence and suitability of the team;
•  Project feasibility and level of of innovation;
• Economic potential and degree of robustness of the business model
• Technology development status and time-to-market;
• Financial support requested and budget availability

1. 2. In case of equal scores, preference will be given to multidisciplinary projects;
2. 3. The pre-selected ideas will be presented, in pitch format, to the competition jury, and those approved will be given conditions for financial support for the innovation project;
3. 4. The proofs of concept may be theoretical, practical or mock-ups, solid enough to support the feasibility of the proposed concept and should be prepared over a maximum period of 6 months;
   5. As many projects will be approved as fit the available budget;
   6. The support to be granted is intended to support part of the project’s activities, which shall be duly specified when the support is communicated; the beneficiary shall be responsible for reimbursing, in full or in part, the financial support granted should he/she not be able to carry out the activities supported by the Institute under the specified conditions.

5. 1. Jury

      The jury will be composed by 3 members from Técnico and 2 members from Jerónimo Martins.

      The composition of the jury for the TecInnov 2023 edition is:

      • Luis Caldas de Oliveira – Deputy Director of iStart lab
      • Diogo Henriques – Team iStart lab
      • Tiago Domingos – Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico
      • Cláudia Vieira – Senior manager of academic partnerships at Jerónimo Martins
      • Rodrigo Lourenço – Aquaculture project manager at Jerónimo Martins

   Resultados da Edição TecInnov Jerónimo Martins 2023

   Project	Project manager	Amount of Support
   IARD: inteligência artificial para redes de distribuição	Matteo Pisano	2.000,00€
   Optimus Supply	Artur Pinto	2.500,00€

Support Documents

News

More information:

Send us an email to: tt@tecnico.ulisbpa.pt