A total of 3,302 students from around the world have signed up to participate in the third Valeo Innovation Challenge.
The contest’s continued success – with a record number of participants signed up this year – attests to the relevance of the challenge put to the students: “come up with an innovation or idea that will make cars more intelligent, intuitive, green and fun by 2030.”
Nine UK teams from the University of Warwick, University City London and the University of Manchester are amonst those set to take part.
In all, 1,344 teams from 65 countries and 785 universities have submitted their application in one of the two available categories, with 60% of the teams competing in the “technological innovation” category and 40% of the teams in the “idea for new ways of using cars” category.
The goal in each category is to win a grand prize of €100,000.
The “idea for new ways of using cars” category, created for the first time this year, has drawn 1,323 students from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, business, urban planning and design, indicating that a broad, diverse segment of society views the auto industry as dynamic and appealing.
At the same time, there are 1,979 students competing in the “technological innovation” category.
70 Valeo experts spread across the Group’s R&D centres worldwide – as well as a number of independent scientists – will examine each of the projects in order to select 24 teams that will advance to the next round.
The 24 short-listed teams will be announced on March 18, 2016, after which Valeo will grant them each €5,000 to develop their idea by building a functional prototype, application or other solution.
Students worldwide can learn more and register for the contest via three dedicated sites:
