UNITA Challenge Arena @Torino - Pitch competition
UNITA Challenge Arena @Torino
The final pitch competition of the UNITA local challenges
The UNITA Challenge Arena @Torino brings together the winning teams from local challenges developed across the UNITA Alliance.
The event is organised by the University of Turin, coordinator of the UNITA Alliance, under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and ITA – Italian Trade Agency, as part of its commitment to strengthening challenge-based learning, innovation ecosystems and transnational collaboration across partner universities.
During the first half of 2026, UNITA partner universities launched local challenge-based initiatives involving students and/or researchers, in collaboration with their innovation ecosystems. Each university shaped its own challenge around topics and needs relevant to its local context, partners and areas of expertise.
On 9 October 2026, during the afternoon session, the selected teams will meet in Turin for a final pitch competition hosted at CTE NEXT – Casa delle Tecnologie Emergenti di Torino.
The event will be a side event of Wave by Vento, formerly Italian Tech Week, one of Europe’s most influential tech conferences and a yearly meeting point for founders, investors and leading industry voices. Wave by Vento will take place in Turin from 7 to 9 October 2026.
The Arena will showcase solutions, connect European university communities and highlight challenge-based learning as a way to bring together education, research, innovation ecosystems and real-world needs.
The pitch competition will close with a final award ceremony. The winning team will have the opportunity to continue its international journey by taking part in the Italian Pavilion programme at Slush 2026, taking place in Helsinki on 18–19 November 2026.
Programme
14:00–14:30 | Registration
14:30–14:50 | Opening & introduction
14:50–16:00 | Pitch Competition — First Round
16:00–16:15 | Break
16:15–17:25 | Pitch Competition — Second Round
17:25–17:45 | Jury Deliberation
17:45–18:00 | Winner Announcement & Award Ceremony + Networking aperitivo
Meet the finalist teams
Nine teams, representing UNITA universities across Europe, will compete in the final Arena:
Bala — Universidad de Zaragoza (UNIZAR), Spain
BioInnovators — Instituto Politécnico da Guarda (IPG), Portugal
Ecowave — Università degli Studi di Torino (UniTo), Italy
IngeCER — Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), Spain
n-Homade — Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA), France
Pink Coders — Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (UVT), Romania
Ruota Libera — Università degli Studi di Torino (UniTo), Italy
smetytech. — Universitatea Transilvania din Brașov (UniTBv), Romania
SynapTrace — Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI), Portugal
Join the final event. Meet the teams. Discover the ideas emerging across the UNITA Alliance.