Other initiatives

Other programs and events in which Iberdrola takes part

• 'Innovation challenge' de Avangrid

  Avangrid, the group's US subsidiary, hosted its fourth annual Innovation Forum in October, where the company's employees joined university students to compete in a ‘Green Grid Innovation Challenge’.

  A highlight of this is its Innovation Challenge - held virtually for the first time due to the pandemic - which pairs teams of students from Cornell, Harvard, Maine, MIT and Yale universities with Avangrid employees to develop solutions to some of the energy sector's toughest challenges.

  This year's winning team - led by Cornell University students Anmol Singh, Ritika Jain and Rashika Mittal - proposed an innovative way for companies to leverage the growing adoption of electric vehicles to benefit the grid through vehicle-to-grid technology. Students on the winning team will receive a total of $30,000 in tuition scholarships from Avangrid.

  Avangrid spent approximately $68 million on innovation projects in 2019 and is on track to increase that figure in 2020, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Investiga I+D+i

  Our company collaborates with the Fundación San Patricio on the Investiga I+D+i program, which fosters interest among students in research, innovation, science and technology. The aim is to increase their motivation to further their studies and provide them with tools that will help them to choose the path through secondary school and then university that they want to follow.

  As part of this collaboration, from 10 to 12 May 2019, the 10th Iberdrola Investiga I+D+i Congress was held at the headquarters of the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) and at the Iberdrola Campus in San Agustín del Guadalix, where more than 100 young researchers aged 15-16 from 20 Spanish schools shared their knowledge with science professionals.

  The focus was on secondary students with outstanding research projects in any of the congress's five thematic areas: gene therapy and diagnostics, electric mobility, the search for extraterrestrial resources, nanotechnology for energy and environmental challenges, and blockchain technology.

  Over nine editions, the initiative has managed to get more than 12,000 schoolchildren from throughout Spain into the world of science and technology.

  Also, as part of the Investiga I+D+i program, Iberdrola also takes part in Researcher's Week, by giving access to the San Agustín Campus so that students can stay there and tour one of its wind farms.

• Youth Speak Forum

  Iberdrola takes part in the Youth Speak Forum, an action space where young people debate with experts, organisations and companies about the problems of climate change and they think up real solutions for mitigating those problems.

  This meeting teaches young people about the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations as a global goal for making the world a better place in 2039. It is here where young people become aware of them and take the power in their hands to change the energy sector.

  

  

  Fourth Edition of Youth Speak Forum. Video voice transcription (Spanish version) [PDF]

  The event is held in more than 100 countries. Since the first edition in Spain in 2016, Iberdrola has been working closely with the event in line with its sustainability commitment and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

  At the 4th Youth Speak Forum, held in 2019, over 500 young people took part in the day dedicated to promoting youth leadership in Agenda 2030 matters, held by Iberdrola and AIESEC at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid.

  Iberdrola's commitment as an electricity sector leader reiterates its commitment to train young talent and give them the tools they need to become change agents in the future of energy.