EIC-facilitated pilot: WIDMO Spectral Technologies and Ferrovial test spectral GPR on Madrid infrastructure

A pilot between the Polish deep-tech start-up WIDMO Spectral Technologies and Spanish construction giant Ferrovial has tested a spectral ground-penetrating radar solution in operational infrastructure settings. The project is a direct result of the European Innovation Council’s Corporate Partnership Programme which matched WIDMO to Ferrovial after WIDMO pitched at the EIC Multi-Corporate Day in Madrid in June 2025. Field scanning took place in the first week of February 2026 and Ferrovial reported the pilot met four of five defined objectives. The collaboration illustrates how curated corporate engagement can move quickly to technical pilots. It also highlights the usual gap between pilot success and large scale procurement and deployment.

How the pilot was seeded and organised

The pilot emerged from a structured venture clienting and curated matchmaking sequence run under the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme. Ferrovial set out innovation challenge areas related to geotechnical risk, utility detection, and excavation optimisation. WIDMO applied and was selected for tailored preparation including pitch coaching and one-on-one meetings at the EIC Multi-Corporate Day in Madrid in June 2025. Following selection, dedicated workshops and training preceded a technical pilot that moved from a business acceleration activity to on-site testing in real project conditions.

What WIDMO brought to the table: spectral ground-penetrating radar and analytics

WIDMO markets a proprietary system that pairs spectral ground-penetrating radar hardware with analytical software. The company positions its solution as next-generation GPR capable of deeper penetration and higher resolution than many conventional GPR approaches. WIDMO says the output supports 2D and 3D visualisations and can feed into GIS and BIM workflows used by infrastructure owners and contractors.

WIDMO’s stated capabilities include shallow utility mapping, pavement anomaly detection and deeper imaging of foundations, voids, boulders, tunnels and geological layers. The company emphasises integration with borehole and excavation data to reconcile different information sources. Ferrovial cited WIDMO’s combination of technical depth and practical applicability as a key differentiator in their selection.

Pilot scope, sites and results

The pilot focused on two operational settings. The primary site was the Castellana Tunnel in Madrid, an underground tunnel under a busy urban corridor where understanding soil cover and identifying weak zones is critical. The second site was Ferrovial Lab, an experimental area at the Machinery Park in Seseña-Madrid, used for assessing soil stability and mapping utilities.

WIDMO carried out on-site scanning in early February 2026 and completed subsequent data analysis. Ferrovial reported that the pilot achieved four of five defined objectives. Outcomes specifically referenced by Ferrovial included locating utility routes, confirming tunnel depth, and detecting zones of loosened soil. Ferrovial framed the pilot as an evaluation of practical usability rather than a final validation.

What worked and what remains open

The pilot shows that spectral GPR combined with analytics can deliver actionable subsurface intelligence in at least some urban infrastructure contexts. For Ferrovial, the exercise provided operational learning about usability, information outputs and how such data could feed pre-construction decision making. For WIDMO, a corporate pilot with a major contractor offered a reference case and an opportunity to refine data pipelines for commercial use.

At the same time several practical and technical uncertainties remain. The pilot covered limited locations and a constrained set of conditions. Ground-penetrating radar performance depends heavily on soil electroconductivity pore water chemistry and layering. Urban noise, buried infrastructure density and access constraints can reduce data quality or make interpretation ambiguous. The publicly available update states four of five objectives were met but does not specify which item remains unresolved. The transition from one successful pilot to repeated, contract-ready deployment typically requires independent validations, extended trials across soil types and demonstrable cost and schedule benefits.

In-context analysis: why this matters and why caution is still warranted

Incomplete subsurface knowledge is a known driver of delays and cost overruns in construction. Non-invasive methods that reduce exploratory excavation and speed up utility detection could mitigate risk and improve planning certainty. If spectral GPR can reliably image both utilities and deeper geotechnical features and integrate into GIS and BIM, it may be valuable to contractors, utilities and cities.

However, corporate pilots are early steps. For procurement teams to adopt such technology at scale they need consistent evidence on accuracy, repeatability, and risk allocation. Questions about data interoperability with clients’ asset systems, ownership of survey outputs, regulatory acceptance for use in statutory surveys and the total cost of survey workflows also need resolution. The path from pilot to standard practice often runs through procurement pilots, standards-setting bodies or public-sector tender requirements that specify acceptable survey methods.

Practical next steps recommended for scaling and procurement

To move from a promising pilot to industrial use, the following steps are recommended for WIDMO, Ferrovial and other stakeholders in the sector:

1. Independent validation across site types. Commission neutral third-party tests that compare SGPR outputs against borehole data and excavation results across a range of soils and urban conditions. 2. Repeated pilots on representative project portfolios. Run multiple pilots with different engineering contractors and utilities to test operational integration and workflows. 3. Define procurement-ready deliverables. Agree standard data formats, metadata and acceptance criteria that feed GIS and BIM so clients can consume outputs with minimal translation. 4. Clarify commercial terms and liability. Establish contracting templates that specify responsibilities for data errors and unexpected surprises revealed later in construction. 5. Quantify benefits. Collect metrics on reduced exploratory excavations, avoided rework, schedule impacts and net cost changes to build a business case. 6. Engage standards bodies and procurers. Work with public buyers, industry bodies and city authorities to embed acceptable technical performance into procurement specifications.

Voices from the pilot

Ferrovial framed the pilot as a measured evaluation rather than a definitive endorsement. As Raquel Marco Simal, Innovation Project Manager at Ferrovial Construction, said the aim was to understand practical usability of WIDMO’s technology in complex project conditions and not to reach premature conclusions. Ciro Acedo Boria, Head of Open Innovation Ecosystem at Ferrovial, stressed that initiatives such as the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme help large corporations focus on solutions that are practically relevant to real business challenges. From WIDMO, Business Development Manager Greg Wabik described the objective of providing a clearer picture of what lies beneath before construction begins and highlighted the combination of spectral hardware and analytics that aims to give infrastructure teams more precise information without disruptive investigations.

EIC Corporate Partnership Programme in context

The EIC Corporate Partnership Programme is one of several EIC Business Acceleration Services designed to help EIC-backed innovators access corporate clients, procurers and investors. The programme organises curated Corporate Days and Multi-Corporate Days in which selected start-ups receive coaching and pitch to corporate decision-makers. Since its inception the programme reports dozens of initiatives with over one hundred corporate partners and more than a thousand EIC-backed start-ups participating. These structured encounters can accelerate a start-up from discovery to pilot stage but do not remove the need for technical validation and procurement readiness.

Bottom line

The WIDMO Ferrovial pilot is a useful example of how curated public match-making can lead to technical trials in operational contexts. Reported results are encouraging and show the potential of spectral GPR and analytics to improve subsurface understanding in complex urban infrastructure projects. That said, the pilot is not the same as market proof. Robust, independent validation across geologies, clear procurement specifications, interoperability with asset systems and a defined route to commercial contracting are still required before contractors and cities can count on a new method to materially reduce subsurface risk across large portfolios.

For now Ferrovial and WIDMO see the exercise as operational learning. If subsequent validation and procurement pilots confirm repeatable accuracy and measurable cost or schedule benefits the technology could become one tool among several in the construction sector’s toolbox for subsurface risk reduction. Meanwhile the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme will likely continue to act as a bridge between European deep-tech innovators and large industrial buyers, while the hard work of translating promising pilots into standard practice remains with the companies and public procurers involved.