This university entrepreneurship initiative, promoted by Banco Santander through Santander Universities and coordinated by the Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento, CISE, has received more than 2,000 projects to participate in its X edition.

Explorer will provide free training, support and mentoring for five months to entrepreneurs and will distribute € 83,000 in prizes to the best business ideas. In addition it will take 53 of of the winners to Silicon Valley in an intensive week of networking and learning.
 

The X edition of the program Explorer 'Young people with ideas', promoted by Banco Santander through Santander Universities and coordinated by the International Center Santander Entrepreneurship (CISE), with training activities in the 54 Explorer Spaces that the program has distributed throughout Spain, Portugal and Argentina.                                

The work that has been coordinated with more than 40 universities and dozens of public and private institutions throughout the country will enable 1,800 entrepreneurs to develop more than 1,000 projects in high-performance centers by May, with personalized advice and training in innovation and business models. The nominated young people will become part of the global community Santander X that connects entrepreneurs from all over the world.

Over 1,000 ideas to build a better future

The more than 1,000 initiatives that were selected seek to solve problems in sectors such as the environment, health, education, tourism or industry, and incorporate the latest advances in technology such as block chain, Internet of Things (IOT), artificial intelligence (AI) or virtual reality.

Among the innovative projects that will be developed in the coming months, we find an ecological pavement that generates and stores energy with the steps of pedestrians; a software that thanks to IA and Big Data verifies news and speeches to avoid fake-news; a device capable of analyzing the skin, diagnosing its state and recommending the best products for its care; glasses that allow information obtained by Bluetooth to be visualized in one of the lenses; a table that allows devices to be charged just by depositing them or an intelligent candy that by means of a chip analyzes the saliva and detects multiple diseases, among many others.

The average age of the participants in this X edition is 23 years old and 62% are students, while 26% are employed and almost 8% are already working in their own business. On the other hand, regarding their studies, 40% of those selected come from social and legal sciences and 28% from engineering and architecture, among others.