UruguayINNOVA is a cooperative program founded in 2009 between the European Union and the Uruguayan government to strengthen the generation and transfer of technology to Uruguay and adjust technological knowledge to the country by building alliances between the private sector, academia and scientific communities. UruguayINNOVA focuses on four main lines of action: supporting the implementation of research programs in the national biotechnology research center, supporting the process of internationalization of software centres, improving the existing national science park, and promoting Research & Development clusters. The program is expected to have a significant impact on the technological sector in Uruguay in the years to come. One of the initiatives is the financial support of the Institute Pasteur Montevideo, which will receive US$100,000 per year for the next five years. This financial aid will be used to support technology projects in genomics, protein biochemistry and cell and molecular biology. The initiative has just been evaluated positively by the European Union, emphasizing its satisfaction with relevance, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

Memory develops accounting and managerial software for small and medium enterprises. Memory Computación’s innovative business model involves focusing on and servicing the needs of administrative staff in small and medium size companies with low levels of software literacy. One of their products, ‘Memory Conty’, delivers basic accounting reports, solving accounting issues, as well as being a key tool for information to help the company’s management. Currently, Memory is the primary accounting and management software solutions provider to 40,000 small and medium enterprises in Uruguay and over 50,000 users in Latin America. Memory has won several prizes, such as the ‘Guia Award' for the ‘most innovative Uruguayan company’. In 2009, Endeavour Foundation selected Memory as one of the best entrepreneurial companies in Latin America, and its international development and expansion was highlighted by CNN news.

Kizanaro is a small Uruguayan sports information technology company. With 17 employees, it commercializes products and services for football teams as well as for media and entertainment. Through videos and specialized platforms, Kizanaro offers sports analysis software as a tool to evaluate the performance of a team and its rivals on the field. The company offers an innovative portfolio including: K-Studio Professional, a software that analyses team and individual football tactics; K-Real Time, a system that allows the Head Coach to receive real time and objective data about the match; K-Scouting, a product that keeps track of individual players throughout the season and compiles a report on their performance in images and video; and Playmaker, a football moves editor that replaces the paper boards used to plan game tactics. Currently, Kizanaro’s products are used by the Uruguayan national football team and by some Uruguayan professional first division clubs. In 2009, Red Innova chose Kizanaro to participate in the ‘First Encounter of Innovation, Technology and Internet’ for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets as one of the 15 most innovative companies in Latin America. It also won first place in the Imagine Cup Uruguay worldwide innovation prize run by Microsoft.

In 1997, Alberto Amorim and Martín Palomeque created a new concept in traffic lights and with it a firm named Telemáforo. This new concept improves the impact of the red light in a traffic light by adding a luminous panel that diffuses messages and images. The screen consists of red light emitting diodes (LEDs), synchronized and controlled by an electronic circuit. The centrally-controlled software enables the client to choose the place, the time and the composition of the message broadcast via the screen. The firm’s clients are mainly municipalities that use the system to broadcast security messages to drivers and pedestrians. Some of the messages are “Please don’t drink and drive. Walk. Take the bus. Take a cab. But don’t return with a drunk driver. Your destiny is yours.” Telemáforo’s system has 160,000 visual impacts per month in Uruguay. Other cities in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Spain are in the process of installing Telemáforo in their municipalities. In 2011, Telemáforo’s main goal is to enter the Brazilian market.

EFICE S.A. is a company which manufactures chlorine, caustic soda and derivatives through the electrolysis of salt. As the firm is the largest private consumer of electricity in Uruguay, their main strategy is to reduce electricity use. In 1998 Efice subscribed to the program ‘Responsible Care’, signalling their desire to comply with the highest standards of quality in order to avoid accidents among employees and not harm the environment. EFICE’s technology development and know-how are a source of national pride and its products are of value because they improve people’s quality of life. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that three million people die annually from drinking water that has not been treated with chlorine. In Uruguay, epidemics such as typhus and cholera have finally been banished with EFICE’s chlorine. Efice S.A. has demonstrated the excellence of its processes and products by achieving ISO 9001 certification.

Social entrepreneur Rosario García y Santos was nominated an Ashoka Fellow for her work towards the empowerment of rural women and helping them improve their contribution to the economy. She has helped to enhance quality of life among rural households in Uruguay. In 1994, Rosario García y Santos founded the non-governmental organization ‘Asociación de Mujeres Rurales del Uruguay’ (Uruguayan Rural Women’s Association, AMRU) in order to provide families in the countryside with the opportunity to live and work by trying to end gender-based discrimination. Despite the fact that the majority of women grouped in AMRU live in different regions of Uruguay, they have much in common: they are women, they live in the countryside, and they are small farmers or rural workers. In a country which is predominantly urban, (only 6.3% of the population lives in rural areas), AMRU has contributed to the development of public policies for the rural sector. The Association was created with 64 rural women’s groups, all from different regions. Currently there are 200 clusters, which include 2,000 women and 10,000 beneficiaries. Rosario’s Cooperative created “Delicias Criollas” (Creole Delights), a common brand for women’s products from different rural areas. For each type of product the association helps the producer with a specific business plan and social marketing strategy. The cooperative is a financial tool which allows rural families to generate income for the economic empowerment of women, and whose aim is to sell their products in domestic and foreign markets. The food products are natural, with home-made ingredients of excellent quality and representative of the national heritage. Creole Delights currently groups 200 rural producers of 60 different products sold in the domestic market. Some of the groups that belong to AMRU develop social activities with the goal of improving education, health and housing, among others.