Want to earn $100,000? Miami-Dade looking for your help to improve how the airport runs

Do you have an idea to have Miami International Airport operate more smoothly? Perhaps make it more accessible or easier to move within terminals? And all you need is a little bit of cash plus connections to airport officials to start your journey?

Then the second Public Innovation Challenge run by the new Miami-Dade Innovation Authority may be for you.

Here’s what to know:

Accepting proposals now

The initiative started accepting proposals from technology entrepreneurs in Miami and globally on Thursday. The deadline for submissions to https://apply.mdia.miami is Jan. 12.

The competition will select at least three winning companies that can best improve the airport experience for passengers or workers. Each one will receive about $100,000 in funding and support to pilot their innovation at MIA. The lucky few will be announced during the second quarter of next year, Leigh-Ann Buchanan, president and chief executive officer of the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, said in an interview.

Companies should be developing solutions in one of three categories: accessibility, navigation, or sustainability. The first could include technologies that help travelers with reduced mobility or a range of disabilities, neurological conditions like autism, or mental health conditions like PTSD.

Navigation would be innovations allowing passengers to move around across the airport more smoothly. That could mean providing digital displays on people’s smartphones, virtual reality maps, chat, and instructions in multiple languages including sign language.

Sustainability could mean AI-enabled recycling solutions or automatic waste data collection.

These categories and rough examples were provided as a guide by the MDIA.

The winners will receive the money immediately. They will also be expected to start testing their technology with the airport at that time.

Ralph Cutié, director and chief executive officer of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, said he’s hopeful that interesting companies will emerge. “Through an open innovation format allowing anyone to submit ideas, we look forward to piloting cutting-edge solutions that make travel efficient and inclusive for our diverse travelers.”

Wanted: companies that are ready to go

What companies need to know:

▪ The initiative is looking for companies that have what in tech industry jargon is called a Minimum Viable Product, or one that is pilot ready but may just need some additional funds to help get it over a last hurdle to do so. Companies also could have received outside funding.

▪ Companies must be legally registered and compliant with regulations.

▪ Participants must fill out an application form, which has several questions including: “How would a pilot opportunity advance your business growth goals?”

▪ The MDIA will take a small equity stake in each winning company, through a SAFE note, said Buchanan, which stands for Simple Agreement for Future Equity and became popularized by the San Francisco-based startup accelerator Y-Combinator. However, it will not have veto power on future funding of the company.

How did the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority get started?

The MDIA is a nonprofit run as an independent entity but with collaboration from the county. It was launched in January 2023 by Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava during her State of the County address and has $9 million in funding. The county, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin each contributed $3 million.

Levine Cava formed the idea after seeing something similar in Israel, where she visited on a trade mission in 2022, together with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

“The Israeli Innovation Authority was the inspiration,” said Buchanan, the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority’s chief, referring to the group that has played a key role in fostering tech startup growth in Israel.

Levine Cava was impressed by how it leveraged private and public capital to support early-stage startups that are trying to solve big public problems from climate change to urban mobility.

At the time the entity was formed, Griffin said, “This work will advance innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth in South Florida.”

The mayor brought on Buchanan, a veteran venture capital investor and founding president of aire ventures, to head the effort. As part of that firm, Buchanan incubated the Tech Equity Miami initiative, which raised $10 million from JPMorgan Chase, an effort to level the funding playing field.

The MDIA’s objective, she said, is to improve the relationship between technology companies and local government. And specifically, to help entrepreneurs access large entities within the city or county to help tackle large local problems, test and validate the technology, and then scale their companies globally. An ordinary entrepreneur cannot always easily get in touch with a top-ranking airport or transit official in an often-daunting bureaucracy.

The initiative also seeks to lower the risk of capital investments. It plans to launch three annual challenges and distribute more than $1 million in funding. They may overlap with each other, said Buchanan.

First challenge: Sargassum

The MDIA’s first Public Innovation Challenge sought out companies finding sustainable uses for sargassum seaweed, which regularly piles up and stinks up South Florida beaches, and is expensive to be hauled away.

Those finalists were scheduled to be announced this month, the Miami Herald reported in July. However, the date got pushed back because of a limited amount of sargassum this year, Buchanan said.

They have narrowed it to the top 12 companies and “we should announce the finalists in January,” the MDIA head said.

Those winners will then launch their pilots in April, when sargassum season typically starts.

Why the Miami airport?

For the second project, MIA was chosen in part because it is a huge airport, itself involved in tech innovation, and is South Florida’s economic engine, bringing in about $30 billion per year to the region.

“It’s very forward-looking,” Buchanan said. “It really helps to have a collaborator who believes in the same opportunities that technology provides.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 5:00 AM.