The first joint edition of “Your Idea is Science” will be dedicated to intellectual disabilities

Your Idea is Science is a collaborative program between the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the iSocial Foundation, taking place during the first semester of 2025 to promote the creation of technological solutions that enhance the autonomy of people with intellectual disabilities.

Seven member entities of iSocial, specializing in intellectual disabilities, will participate in the activity: El Maresme Foundation, Ampans Foundation, ALBA Association, Support-Girona, Astres Foundation, Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation (FCSD), and ASPACE Catalunya Foundation. Additionally, it will have the support of the Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat and funding from the Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR).

Through the involvement of professionals from these seven entities, individuals with intellectual disabilities, researchers, and UPC students, we will launch six dialogue spaces for brainstorming solutions, selecting proposals, and supporting their development.

Previously, during 2024, as part of the iSocial working group “All by Myself,” individuals with intellectual disabilities from the seven entities, along with their accompanying professionals, identified a total of 150 challenges to personal autonomy across six areas: communication, personal care, financial management, socialization, household tasks, and mobility.

These six dialogue spaces between social and technological agents will take place in the libraries of the six UPC campuses. After presenting the identified challenges in each area, users, together with researchers and students, will brainstorm possible technological solutions. Once ideas are collected, workshops will be held to turn them into concrete proposals, and a jury will select the most promising initiatives, which will be presented at a final event with all participants. Subsequently, the winning teams will implement them with UPC support.

This activity offers a valuable opportunity for social entities to actively participate in a co-creation process addressing the needs of their users, which can be transformed into solutions with a direct impact on people with disabilities.

Furthermore, the activity will help raise awareness and train UPC technologists (faculty, researchers, and students) to better understand the needs of the social sector, generating contacts, collaborations, and connections that could lead to new projects and initiatives in the future.

If this initial experience is successful, iSocial and UPC aim to organize new joint editions of “Your Idea is Science” in the coming years, dedicating each new edition to a different area of social intervention for the iSocial entities.