About MatchImpulsa

MatchImpulsa is a transversally feminist hub of programs for the digital platformization of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and Collaborative Economy of the city of Barcelona

This innovative programme emerged as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its purpose is to promote and to move up the SSE and Platform Economy, the international perspective, the gender perspective, and the adaptation of gender equality plans to companies and organisations of the digital sphere. 

The programme is based on three strategic lines and nine subprograms: 

1) Platformization of companies, with the MatchImpulsa +100 (adaptation), MatchImpulsa 20 (acceleration) and MatchImpulsa 10 (prototyping) programs, that will allow participating entities to attend trainings and to receive support in the definition and the production of their platform prototypes; 

2) Strategic collaborations with MatchTech, MatchIgualtat and MatchUniversitat, in order to build bridges between participating companies and technologic companies and research and services aiming at the development of gender equality plans and measures; 

3) Creation and dynamization of strategic ecosystems of Barcelona BarCola, Barcelona sharing economy ecosystem; Digista, intensive digital economy in feminisms ecosystem, Digital Agroecology, agroecology and sustainable food ecosystem.

Structure and calendar

MatchImpulsa +100 [starting on May 25th 2021] is aimed at companies and organizations which want to rethink and consolidate their digital strategy considering the current digital wave (web, social networks, etc.) in order to adapt their activity organization model to the telework and to develop their business activity through digital platforms. The programme is oriented towards projects that want to take this step while guaranteeing inclusivity, gender equity and their projects’ transformative values and practices. 

MatchImpulsa 20 [starting on June 25th 2021] is aimed at twenty companies which aspire to give a qualitative push to their activity in order to operate as digital platforms. The selected projects will be able attend trainings, participate in networking sessions and benefit from support from technological experts (MatchTech), gender equality experts (MatchIgualtat) and sustainable business models design. This program will enable the selected projects to identify their minimum viable product (MVP) and to include the gender perspective in their prototype’s design thanks to the facilitation of a mentor. 

MatchImpulsa 10 [starting on September 21st 2021] is an acceleration program facilitating the development of platform prototypes developed with free softwares. The ten selected projects will be able to define their technological briefing and the production of their platform prototypes thanks to the support of technological experts (MatchTech) as well as to implement their gender equality plans (MatchIgualtat). Trinings, networking sessions and mentoring are also included in this program. 

This program also presents a unique element: the ten selected projects will be able to participate in a matchfunding campaign meaning that thanks to their participation in the MatchImpulsa program, they will get up to 10.000€ of funding according to the funds they will have raised through a crowdfunding campaign. The program will end in the elaboration of 10 platform prototypes. 

Goals and principles

The main goals are: the economic acceleration of projects that need to digitalize because of the impact of the covid-19 crisis; fostering digital intercooperation, reverting the gender digital divide; deploying measures and gender equality plans; creating and strengthening Barcelona strategic ecosystems: intensive digital economy in feminisms (Digista), agroecology and sustainable food (Digital Agroecology), Barcelona sharing economy (BarCola); favor the internationalization of companies and ecosystems of Matchimpulsa; include Action Research in order to popularize and open the knowledge generated.   

  • Facilitate the digital transition of initiatives that have needed to adopt digital tools because of the covid-19 pandemic. 
  • Economic acceleration of projects with
    • Digital training and business model digitalization programs,
    • Use of innovative financing tools such as the matchfunding,
    • Deployment of collaboration networks,
    • Networking between companies with SSE values and technological companies.
  • Revert the gender digital divide with equalitarian measures, gender equality plan and connections between companies and gender equality services.
  • Support the creation of strategic ecosystems: 
    • Create Digista to strengthen  intensive digital economy in feminisms; 
    • Create Digital Agroecology, a strong network whose purpose is to face agroecology and sustainable food challenges through digital platformization;
    • Strengthen BarCola,  Barcelona sharing economy ecosystem.
  • Include Action Research for the knowledge generated all along the implementation of the program to be open and available for all thanks to the collaboration between the companies and the university. 
  • Favor the internationalization of companies and ecosystems of Matchimpulsa;

MatchImpulsa’s fundamental principles:

  • Supporting digital platformization
  • Strengthening Social and Solidarity and Platform Economy
  • Inclusion of gender perspective
  • Supporting and promoting diversity
  • Promoting collaborative, cooperative and community work
  • Methodological innovation through Action Research
  • Promotion of digital commons and open knowledge (open license, free softwares, scalability and replicability)
  • Promotion of a digital economy model in adequation with the people welfare and the right to the city. 

More information at info@matchimpulsa.barcelona and inscriptions on the website.

MatchImpulsa is implemented in the frame of the Barcelona Open_Chair, developed jointly by Dimmons IN3 UOC, the Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Activa.

The Barcelona UOC Chair in Digital Economy: for a Platform Economy focused on the people’s welfare and the right to the city (Open_Chair) is the result of an agreement between the Open University of Catalonia, the Barcelona city Council and Barcelona Activa. It is directed by Dimmons Research Group. The Open_Chair’s purpose is to promote strategic actions, connections, work dynamics, and instruments for public policies and cities’ ecosystems to be able to face the challenges raised by Platform Economy as well as to take advantage of the opportunities it offers through its development and its democratization based on public policies co-creation, entrepreneurship promotion and training.

The implementation of this chair is assigned to the department of Economy, resources and economic promotion (Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy and Food Policy service unit) and Barcelona Activa (Socioeconomic Innovation Operative Unit). In addition Municipal Management (Gender Transversality Unit), Urbanism Management and the Barcelona Culture Institute (ICUB) among others, will actively participate in the Open_Chair.

Expected impact on public policies:

In order to reach the previously cited goals, the activities implemented in the frame of the Open_Chair can be the following:

  • Research Activities, according to Action Research methodology:
    • Joint research lines definition for the development of a new vision and reference frameworks  in front of new challenges and opportunities along with the generation of empirical research resulting in data and proofs to inform the actions to undertake. 
    • Cooperation for raising funds to finance the Open_Chair defined research lines. 
    • Creation and Knowledge transfer activities (events and publications).
  • Entrepreneurship promotion activities:
    • Support to the development, the networking and the international dimension of economic initiatives of Barcelona and its local ecosystem.
    • Creation of programs and useful resources for entrepreneurship and the scalability of economic initiatives. 
    • Favor the collaborative and democratic shift of the industry sector, participating for instance in the big technological events of the city.
  • Cocreation of public policies activities:
    • Foster the ecosystem and the creation of bridges and relevant connections among the local community members. 
    • Develop means for the cocreation of public policies.
    • Foster international cooperations and joint actions between international cities: the Open_Chair will carefully follow the main global tendencies, facilitating international projection, Barcelona networking and the creation of joint actions among cities based on the Sharing Cities Action Task Force program resulting from the Sharing Cities Summit 2018. 
    • Take part in the public debate and local, national and international media in order to spread out Barcelona around the world. 
  • Training activities:
    • Training offer according to the lines set by the Open_Chair.
    • industrial PhD ‘s.
    • Internships Plans.
    • Graduation Challenges and awards.