Jón Atli Benediktsson, rector of the University of Iceland, and Ragnhildur Helgadóttir, rector of the University of Reykjavík, and recently signed an agreement on the increased cooperation of the University of Reykjavík with Reykjavík City's Höfða Peace Center and the University of Iceland on the community growth space Snjallræði.
Cleverness is intended to highlight and promote new solutions that support the United Nations' global goals and solve the pressing challenges of our time. There may be solutions related to healthcare, welfare technology, improved education systems and equality issues, for example.
"It is important that the university community join hands when urgent solutions to contemporary challenges are on the one hand, and we are really happy to see the University of Reykjavík entering the project with so much energy. The University of Reykjavík has been a partner of Snjallræði ever since the accelerator first took place in 2018, but is now coming in much more powerfully than before," says Jón Atli Benediktsson, rector of the University of Iceland.
"We are proud to have been part of this project since 2018 and are extremely happy to further strengthen the involvement of HR." Universities play a key role in finding solutions to the challenges we face. For HR, it is also very important that all students, even those who are not in the technical field, have the opportunity to learn about innovation", says Ragnhildur Helgadóttir, Rector of Reykjavík University.
This year, ten start-up companies were selected to participate in Sjjallräði that work on diverse solutions, from circular solutions in the food and construction industries to solutions designed to promote entrepreneurial skills among children and provide an easier path to increased opportunities for girls with ADHD.
"We have just established a partnership with MITdesignX for the next three years regarding their involvement in Sjjallräði, while MITdesignX will organize four two-day workshops over a 16-week period, from the end of August to the beginning of December. The increased participation of the University of Reykjavík will be of great use in that collaboration, and we are of course happy that the collaboration is getting stronger year-on-year," says Pia Hansson, director of the Reykjavík City Center for Peace and the University of Iceland.
Brainstorming is now taking place for the fourth time since its inception, and the teams are currently participating in the third MITdesignX workshop this term, under the guidance of Sväfa Grönfeldt and her partner from MITdesignX. This is the second year in a row that KLAK is in charge of the implementation of the accelerator, but KLAK has years of experience in innovation and the development of business ideas in Iceland.
The final day of Smart Intelligence 2022 will take place in Gróska on Wednesday, December 7, and then everyone interested will have the opportunity to learn more about the teams that participated this year and their important solutions.
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