London – 29 July 2025 – NTT DATA, a global leader in technology services and digital business, has announced today the fourteenth edition of its Open Innovation Programme, which will broaden its scope this year to include organisations from across the UK and Ireland, as well as Europe and Latin America, opening new opportunities for collaboration.
The previous edition of the Open Innovation Programme in 2024 saw the participation of 11 major companies, who received 88 applications from start-ups, and generated dozens of one-to-one meetings between innovators and companies, leading to the creation of several high-potential pilot projects. The winners were:
- Credit Agricole Bank Polska, which partnered with the start-up Myriad AI to develop a solution based on autonomous AI agents capable of supporting regulatory compliance management in the financial sector, thereby improving efficiency and reliability.
- IP Gruppo API, which launched a project with the start-up Qsee focused on using artificial intelligence to optimise profitability, sustainability, and quality in refining processes, achieving a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions.
The challenges launched as part of this year’s contest – the fourteenth edition – were designed by leading companies from a broad range of industries, including a2a, Angelini Pharma, Axpo Italia, Fastweb+Vodafone, Gruppo CAP, Terna, and leading financial services institutions. The challenges devised by the participating industry leaders cover a wide range of advanced technological applications to experiment and co-create cutting-edge solutions aimed at addressing real market and societal needs. Areas explored include: energy optimisation for water plants, distributed energy resource (DER) management, data-driven customer acquisition for SMEs, mental and cognitive health with AI support, robotics for environmental monitoring and analysis, predictive cybersecurity, and much more.
The driving force behind the initiative is Discovery, the digital Open Innovation platform developed by NTT DATA, which collects and systematises the challenges proposed by participating companies.
The 2025 edition of this year’s competition will culminate in the Open Innovation Week, scheduled to take place in Montepulciano, Italy, from October 27 - 30, 2025. This event will serve as the vibrant hub for meetings between companies and selected start-ups. Four days of workshops, one-to-one sessions, mentorship, and collaborative discussions will be dedicated to developing pilot projects, culminating in the realisation of a proof of concept and the awarding of the winning project.
Innovation thrives when diverse minds come together with a shared purpose. The Open Innovation Programme is a powerful catalyst for this type of collaboration, bringing digital innovators and start-ups together with some of the leading industry players and incumbents, to co-create solutions that address real-world challenges. This year, we’re broadening the scope of this Programme to ensure it addresses truly international challenges and in doing so, we’re expanding the boundaries of what’s possible. We’re excited to be accelerating the development of transformative ideas that can shape a better future for society and we are looking forward to seeing the brilliant ideas that come out of this year’s contest.
Start-ups wishing to participate in the Open Innovation Programme can apply until August 22, 2025.