300 Spanish university students participate in i-Days 2024, the ‘Eurovision’ of innovation and entrepreneurship in health

• This pan-European competition, organised by EIT Health to ‘uncover’ future health talents, attracts over a thousand international students
• This year’s edition takes place in 24 cities across 16 countries, with five Spanish locations: Badajoz, Santander, Barcelona, Vic, and Valencia

The new edition of EIT Health’s i-Days, known as the ‘Eurovision’ of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is set to return in 2024, with over 1,000 students competing to solve the most urgent challenges in the field of health. Since its launch in 2016 with just six cities and 500 participants, the event has grown to involve universities, training centres, and business hubs across 24 cities in 16 countries. This year, Badajoz (24 and 25 October), Santander (29 October and 6 November), Barcelona (7 November), Vic (7 and 8 November), and Valencia (8 and 9 November) will be the Spanish venues hosting around 300 young people interested in entrepreneurship.

Supported by EIT Health, which is part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, and in collaboration with European universities, i-Days have become a reference point for identifying and training the future leaders of health innovation. They are aimed at students aged 18 to 24 from various disciplines, such as health sciences, business administration, and engineering, who will work together in multidisciplinary teams to develop solutions to real-life problems in the healthcare field.

Real health challenges

The i-Days 2024 will be held in one or two-day formats, where students will receive an introduction to practical tools for health innovation and collaborate in teams to solve health challenges posed by local organisations, private companies, or start-ups, ranging from optimising health services to developing new medical technologies.

“The value of these events is not only in the competition but also in the shared learning and teamwork,” says Izabel Alfany, Managing Director of EIT Health Spain. “It’s an excellent opportunity for young people from different disciplines to meet, share ideas, and develop projects that can have a real impact on society,” she adds.

Each team will present its proposal to a local jury, who will evaluate the solutions and select the winners. The students selected from the five events in Spain will represent their city at the grand international final, the ‘EIT Health Career Path: From Students to Innovators’ event, which will take place in Budapest on 28 and 29 November, supported by Amazon Web Services. This event is not only an opportunity to present innovative solutions but also a platform to connect with some of the key players in the health and tech sectors in Europe.

The programme promotes the development of essential skills such as teamwork, through collaboration between students from different disciplines; innovation and creativity through practical exercises; pitching innovative ideas to a jury of experts; and learning professional standards and tools from innovators and companies.

Lorena González Montes, coordinator of i-Days at EIT Health, highlights the importance of this event for young people: “The initiative helps train soft skills essential for entrepreneurship and innovation, like networking or delivering a pitch, and also offers a unique opportunity to meet other students from Spain and internationally.”

i-Days are open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in health innovation, with no prior experience in the field or entrepreneurship required. “There are no academic prerequisites, and students from all disciplines and areas are welcome,” González Montes points out.

For José Millet, Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship and Employment and the person responsible for i-Days at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, one of the pioneering institutions in hosting this event in Spain, “this healthy competition takes students out of the classroom and helps them realise what they are capable of, while also enhancing their professional profiles and increasing their employability.”

Success stories: from i-Days to start-up creation

The impact of i-Days is reflected in experiences like that of Sara Pérez Martínez, a biomedical engineer who, along with a team of fellow students from the University of Valencia, won the 2022 international competition in Vienna with her project ‘Fluyo’. This innovative device is a women’s panty liner that detects vaginal health issues through coloured sensors. “It was an incredible experience that changed my life,” she says. “After the competition, we decided to start a company and develop our project. I also received a scholarship to study a master’s at the University of Berkeley, in San Francisco (USA), and I’m now working on projects that aim to change the status quo,” Pérez Martínez explains.

Another standout participant is María Fernández Vaquerizo, a biomedical engineer from the University of Barcelona, who, along with her team, won third prize in the 2023 final with her project, a portable solution for cleaning menstrual cups. María is currently developing this as part of her Master’s Thesis and says: “I wasn’t sure about innovation. I knew the theory, but having the opportunity to see how it happens in such a real environment helped me visualise it and make it tangible. It was a very enriching experience.”