innovation4change

Develop Early-Stage solutions

innovation4change's mission is to educate to conceptualize and develop early-stage solutions that resolve a problem connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals while creating a sustainable business. We are giving the leaders of tomorrow the tools to understand venture building and open innovation following our learning through action approach.

In every edition, global and pressing challenges from different institutions and companies are tackled by a group of young talents comprised of the Collège's MBA Fellows and PhDs from leading European universities such as Scuola Normale Pisa, Politecnico di Torino, ETH, Politecnico di Milano, among others. Together, they form multidisciplinary teams, blending their individual competences to find disruptive solutions to current problems in the field of climate change and sustainability.

During innovation4change, the participants gain a valuable skillset in design thinking and open innovation, starting from a challenge, over finding a problem within that challenge and to creating a solution tackling that problem. They are supported along the way by the companies and institutions that present the challenges, as well as by dedicated team mentors and a network of experts, researchers, and entrepreneurs that CDI offers.

The business ideas created from this intensive, 5-month programme, are then presented during the annual Demo Day in front of an audience composed of companies, entrepreneurs, and professionals.