The Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca (UPSA)), in collaboration with Unicaja, has awarded this morning the best projects of social innovation Talent Junior, developed by students from schools and high-schools of Salamanca. Part of the prize money will go to different non-profit associations that usually collaborate with the Volunteer Service of the UPSA.
This initiative, promoted by the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Transfer and framed within the University Innovation Club (CUI), is aimed at students of Compulsory Secondary Education, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training in the province of Salamanca. The products and projects developed by the students must be innovative, have a social purpose and be aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Prior to the event, the Vice-Chancellor of the UPSA, Santiago García-Jalón, greeted the participants, students and teachers from the schools that presented their social innovation projects, as well as the representatives of the associations.
Then, the presentation of the projects began, chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for for Research and Transfer, Ana María Fermoso, together with the Unicaja’s regional manager of Commercial Banking Castilla y León South, Manuel Rubio, and the head of the GIT Service, Montserrat Mateos.
In this seventh edition of the Talent Junior call, eleven projects have been awarded, whose economic endowment -600 € per project-, will be shared fifty-fifty with 10 prominent non-profit associations of our province, regular collaborators with the UPSA Volunteer Service.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Ana María Fermoso, thanked Unicaja and the schools, high schools and NGOs for their participation in this seventh edition of Talent Junior, and stressed "the importance of promoting creativity and the culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and effort from an early age, putting them at the service of others and society".
For his part, Unicaja’s head of Commercial Banking Castilla y León South, Manuel Rubio, expressed his gratitude to the UPSA and stressed that "Unicaja is proud to be in an event of this nature”. At the same time, he addressed the participating students with this message of confidence: "I am sure that a bright future awaits you. Believe in yourselves”.
Finally, the head of GIT insisted on the importance of carrying out this type of initiatives "whose ultimate goal is to promote the innovation among young people, while instilling values such as collaboration and social commitment".
Unicaja and the UPSA maintain a collaboration agreement in this regard with the aim of promoting talent and social innovation of Salamanca non-university students, as well as promoting the transfer of knowledge in Salamanca society. In addition, both entities share their commitment to social inclusion and collaborate closely with non-profit organizations.
