Colombia now has a frugal innovation hub: Frugalis
In late April, Politécnico Grancolombiano launched Frugalis in Bogotá: Colombia's first hub for frugal innovation, and a new node in a global network that includes partners in the Netherlands, Kenya, and India. The premise is direct. Frugal innovation is not about doing more with less as a constraint. It's about building solutions that are simple, local, and sustainable by design. Not as a compromise, but as a method.
At the launch, Poli rector Juan Fernando Montañez was present alongside institutional representatives and strategic partners. Professor Peter Knorringa of Erasmus University Rotterdam reflected on more than ten years of building the International Centre for Frugal Innovation. ICFI grew out of the Dutch LDE Strategic Alliance between Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, and Erasmus University Rotterdam. Three universities with complementary strengths: area studies and anthropology, design engineering, and business and management expertise. Frugal innovation needs all three. Solutions must be well-designed, culturally grounded, and economically viable.
Over the past decade, researchers in India, Kenya, and the Netherlands have built something together: a practice of frugal innovation grounded in local contexts and driven by real needs. This is not expansion for visibility, but a deliberate effort to build a network that works across contexts. Frugalis marks the next step.
This network grows stronger when it grows more diverse. Colleagues at Frugalis bring their own expertise, their own contexts, and their own questions. María Alejandra Pineda Escobar, whose research has long been part of this conversation, leads the hub and will play a central role in shaping what Frugalis brings to the network. Her approach is practical: build things that respond to actual problems, using what is already there.
Build things that respond to actual problems, using what is already there
The first output: a congress, May 27-29
Three weeks after the launch, Frugalis has its first concrete output. On May 27-29, El Poli and Universidad Javeriana host the inaugural Latin American Congress on Frugal Innovation, Social Technologies, and Citizen Science in Bogotá, co-organized with RELIF (the Latin American Frugal Innovation Network) and CITEC, and supported by Ayuda en Acción and ICFI. Researchers, entrepreneurs, social organizations, and policymakers. Three days, one shared question: how do you actually do this?
The main day is May 28 at Poli's campus, 8 AM to 5 PM. Knorringa opens the programme with a session on the transformational potential of frugal innovation. Not just whether a solution works, but whether it shifts something structurally: who gets access, who stays in control, and whether it solves something real or just works around it. Colombian entrepreneurs and social leaders present their own work the same day. You can follow Knorringa's opening session via the virtual stream here. The session runs from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM Colombia | Bogotá time (Netherlands | Amsterdam 16:00–17:00 CET).
