An Innovation
Radar for BIMSA

The challenge

BIMSA (Barcelona d’Infraestructures Municipals) is the municipally owned company of the Barcelona City Council responsible for managing and coordinating urban development and infrastructure projects, and construction works. Operating under increasingly demanding conditions —such as the climate emergency, circular economy requirements, and rising expectations around transparency, safety, and urban quality— requires a more proactive, structured, and innovation-driven approach to decision-making.

How can BIMSA support a future-ready Barcelona in a context of rapid, evolving transformation? As its role continues to expand, BIMSA required a living and structured innovation framework to systematically identify, categorise, and prioritise innovation opportunities, align them with European and municipal strategies, and support informed decision-making in the adoption of emerging technologies, systems, and materials across its projects and urban interventions.

Our approach

As a solution to this challenge, Anteverti designed a tailored innovation radar for BIMSA ensuring that it was firmly grounded in real operational needs and ongoing practices.

The process began with an in-depth analysis of existing innovation initiatives, internal processes, and external constraints. Building on this diagnosis, we defined a clear and actionable structure linking innovation opportunities to BIMSA’s strategic objectives, key internal processes, and operational domains such as sustainability, efficiency, quality, safety, and citizen impact. The radar also allows the connection of these opportunities to Smart City technologies, including BIM, GIS, artificial intelligence, IoT, and robotics. This relational view enables BIMSA to understand not only what innovations matter and how they relate to BIMSA’s operations, but also which enabling tools are needed to turn innovation into real operational outcomes.

To make innovation tangible and the radar actionable, we identified concrete and curated international best practices from leading cities and organisations —such as digital passport for materials, photo reflective pavements to reduce urban heat island effects, or automated safety monitoring using drones and smart cameras— providing real-world references for implementation.

The impact

As a response to this challenge, BIMSA is now equipped with a living decision-support tool that prioritises innovation based on impact, urgency and feasibility. This will allow the organisation — and the city — to more effectively translate emerging innovative solutions into real, applicable actions for urban projects, while drawing on proven best practices already implemented in comparable contexts.