EIT ICT Labs venture Smart Signs Solutions nominated for Dutch Health innovation award - Spider Award 2012

Smart Signs is one of the three ventures that was selected EIT ICT Labs for the EIT 'ICIT' Entrepreneurship Awards 2012.

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Imagine for instance a hospital environment with personalised dynamic way finding. In this smart environment screens give personalised signage information because they pick up radio signals of a tag that patients wear. This means that one will be in time for the next survey or appointment and that finding your way around is easy. No need to fear anymore that you will get lost somewhere in a hospital wing. But indeed, finding your way is not the same as arriving in the right room. The patient will however see a screen next to the right door with a message that one can enter the right treatment room.

EIT ICT Labs Business Developer Alain le Loux, who coached this start-up says:

Smart Signs Solutions is a spin-off of the University of Twente, a core partner of EIT ICT Labs. Smart Signs fits perfectly in the strategy of EIT ICT Labs to boost innovative solutions into the market and at the same time addressing societal challenges. This start-up deserves the nomination but we are not there yet. First we have to pitch for the jury and who knows… hopefully we win the Spider Award 2012.

Smart Signs Solutions is part of the Business Acceleration Programme of EIT ICT Labs. This means that they are coached intensively from setting up the business plan, getting pitch training to finding venture capital and direct support in how to get it. Smart Signs Solutions will be provided with a soft landing to internationalise the products. The international soft landing is intended to run from Eindhoven to the other nodes in Berlin, Paris, Helsinki, Trento and Stockholm. The focus now is on a soft landing in Germany where the Smart Signs Solution for dynamic way finding, may be unrolled in a German hospital environment. 

Meet Maria Lijding, founder of Smart Signs: