The Ministry of Telecommunications and the Information Society (MINTEL), under the government of Daniel Noboa, recognized the winners of the fourth Innovation Challenge Call for 2025–2026. The award ceremony took place at the UTPL campus in Quito. The initiative aims to promote technological solutions to improve Ecuador’s educational and social environment.
“In each challenge, in each idea and in each proposal presented by you, young people, we see something fundamental reflected: Ecuador has creativity and has the capacity to create technology, not just consume it,” said Minister Roberto Kury.
This year’s edition saw participation from 167 teams nationwide. There were two categories: Ideation, for high school students with 115 teams; and Prototyping, for higher education students with 52 teams. Sixteen finalist teams were selected across both categories.
The challenges addressed social, productive, environmental, institutional, and technological issues aligned with Ecuador’s National Development Plan and real business needs. For the first time, private sector companies Bogati and Soy Responsable SAS proposed real business challenges. Five teams participated in these company-sponsored tasks aimed at finding technological solutions for sustainable practices.
According to MINTEL, this collaboration is a step toward an open innovation model that connects industry needs with academic training while strengthening national technological capacities.
The prototyping awards ceremony was held in Quito on March 3, while the ideation awards took place on February 24 at UTPL in Loja. Finalist teams presented their projects before a judging panel that selected three winners per category.
Prototyping category winners included:
1. The team from Universidad Europea de Madrid (Quito) with “Talent Digital X,” a digital talent development platform.
2. The team from Instituto Superior Tecnológico Libertad (Quito) with a smart microfactory project using recycled PET materials for local solutions.
3. The team from Universidad de Guayaquil with “Prisma Block,” an acrylic recycling solution.
Instituto Superior Tecnológico Japón received recognition as the most innovative educational institution committed to digital transformation.
Awards were provided by partner organizations such as UTPL, ESPOL, CCQ, NODO, DHARMA, RenovationIT, AVLABOGADOS and Territorios Inteligentes-iT Cía. Ltda., including specialized mentoring sessions, memberships, professional courses, support programs and internships at technology companies.
MINTEL organized this national initiative together with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture; the Ecuadorian Chamber of Innovation and Technology; Quito Chamber of Commerce; Escuela Politécnica del Litoral; and Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja to foster creativity and technological research while encouraging cooperation between academia, public sector and private enterprise for Ecuador’s digital transformation.
“The Government of New Ecuador reaffirms its commitment to expand this initiative regionally to position Ecuador as a technology-generating country that promotes talent and contributes innovative solutions globally.”
