Month: October 2021

Finnova co-organises four official events within the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)

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Post date October 27, 2021
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The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties COP26 2021 will take place from 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow and Brussels.
Finnova is co-organising four side events to present European projects CILIFO, LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0, CirCoAX, and S-moving.
These projects deal with climate change mitigation, optimal production and use of renewable energies, the circular economy, and sustainable mobility, respectively.

Brussels. 27.10.201 From 31 October to 12 November, Glasgow (UK) and Brussels (Belgium) will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties 2021 (COP26). Finnova Foundation is co-organising four events to present a number of European projects focusing on the optimal production and usage of renewable energies, the circular economy, sustainable mobility, and climate change mitigation.

The COP26 events will be held in Glasgow and Brussels and they will also be live broadcasted. Attendees may register using this form.

LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0: European Sustainable Bioeconomy

Finnova’s first event will be ‘LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0: Powering the EU through 2050: Turning the Bioeconomy into Reality’. It will be a hybrid event from Brussels and the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain) within the framework of the Biosphere Reserve programme, and it will take place on Friday 5 November from 9:30 to 10:30 (CEST).

Panelists at this event, which is co-organised by Finnova Foundation, Metabolic Institute, and Global Omnium will provide an overview on the current situation of bioeconomy in Europe and they will discuss solutions to ensure the EU’s climate neutrality by 2050. The European project entitled ‘LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0’ will be presented as an innovative solution aiming to transform the sludge emanating from wastewater treatment plants using an automatic control software to subsequently pump them into anaerobic digesters to maximise the on-demand production of biogas.

This conference will feature the contributions of Harmen Dekker, Director of the European Biogas Association; Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of Finnova Foundation, and a number of representatives from Global Omnium. The event will be topped off with the delivery of the Bioeconomy COP26 Startup Europe Awards (SEUA), where the most innovative idea, project, or start-up in bioeconomy will be awarded. This event will be held on the occasion of the COP26 Energy Transition Day and it will coincide with the celebration of the Primer Congreso Internacional sobre Canarias como “Kilómetro Cero Mundial de los Océanos” y la Reserva de la Biosfera de El Hierro como “kilómetro Cero de los Zifios” del Corredor Biológico Mundial.

Apply for the BieconomyCOP26 Startup Europe Awards here.

CirCoAX: Circular Economy in the Textile Sector

The webinar called ‘Textile & Circular Economy: “Next Generation EU Startup Europe Awards (SEUA) for Circular and Disruptive Solutions in Textiles”’ will be held from La Palma island (Canary Islands, Spain) on Saturday 6 November from 18:30 to 19:30 CEST. The event seeks to foster the circular economy in Latin America, the EU, and Scotland in the fashion and textile industry – the second most polluting in the world.

Finnova Foundation and Zero Waste Scotland will lead this event, which will look at cooperation and supporting alternative models for the green transition of the textile sector using innovation, EU funded facilities, and clusters like NextextileGeneration. The event will feature the presentation of the CircularInnoBooster project and its accelerator CirCoAX as a success story funded by the EU. This project seeks to make textile and fashion companies more sustainable and circular. The event will be attended by Antonio Fernández, the president of the Consejo Científico de la Reserva Mundial de la Biosfera La Palma. The event will be wrapped up with the delivery of the Nextextile COP26 Startup Europe Awards (SEUA).

Apply for the Nextextile COP26 Startup Europe Awards here.

Interreg CILIFO: Fighting Forest Fires and Climate Change Mitigation

Finnova Foundation, Helmholtz Climate Initiative, and Forestry Division of FAO, will jointly hold this event on Monday 8 November 2021 from 18:30 to 19:30 CEST both in the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow and online. ‘Forest Ecosystems Trends and Innovation: Satellite Observation, Simulations, and Firefighting’ will provide a timely opportunity to assess the current and future state of forests, and special attention will be paid to fighting forest fires and mitigating climate change. The event will feature the contributions of the Minister of the Canaries Department for Green Transition, Climate Change Mitigation, and Cohesion, José Antonio Valbuena, and Bárbara Dietrich, a representative of Diplomatic World, inter alia.

Finnova’s contribution in this event will revolve around the CILIFO project and its accelerator Firefighting Open Innovation Lab which are being led by the Andalusia Regional Government and which endorse initiatives to prevent and extinguish forest fires, forest management, and climate change adaption and mitigation.

At the end of the event, the fundamental role of innovation and entrepreneurship will be acknowledged as the 3^rd edition of the Firefighting Startup Europe Awards (SEUA-CILIFO) 2021 will be delivered. These awards are an open innovation tool to identify creative and promising start-ups capable of solving the current challenges in fighting forest fires. The goals of these awards are to spot enterprises offering products, services, or methodologies addressing the three main challenges in fighting forest fires: prevention, suppression, and regeneration. Innovations should focus on improving the efficiency of equipment in fighting forest fires, the creation of technological tools, raising social awareness, studying the evolution of fires, cataloguing the level of hazardousness of forest fires, and analysing fire meteorology and spatial and time patterns. The winner will receive an acceleration ticket from Startup Europe worth €10,000, along with mentorship sessions and technical assistance from Finnova’s experts and other external mentors.

Sustainable moving: Transitioning towards Sustainable Urban Mobility

The last event where Finnova will take part will be held on Friday 12 November from 11:00 to 12:00 CEST at Brussels Bloom Hotel (Brussels) – it will also be live broadcasted – and will focus on ‘Sustainable Mobility: Integrative/Complementary Approaches for Net-zero Urban Transportation”’. The event will feature the contributions of the Malaga City Council, the MobiliseYourCity and the Climate Rally project and will focus on proposals aiming to ensure a green transition towards sustainable and fair urban mobility. In this context, experts in mobility will discuss how innovation in the automobile sector can ensure a zero-emission future by presenting a number of proposals to integrate disruptive technologies and the correct access to EU funds to develop their ideas.

At the end of the event, the winners of the Sustainable Mobility COP26 Startup Europe Awards will be announced. This is a timely opportunity to spread innovations in mobility which are being implemented in cities like Malaga, which is at the forefront in these kinds of sustainable proposals.

Apply for the Sustainable Mobility COP26 Startup Europe Awards here.

About COP26 (https://ukcop26.org/)

Created by the United Nations 30 years ago, the COP26 is the most important international forum to address climate change. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the annual summit set up by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which brings together 196 contracting countries plus the EU.

Although it was initially planned to be held in 2020, the COP26 had to be put off until November 2021 due to COVID-19. The 2021 edition will host on-site and online events from 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow and Brussels, and they will focus on engaging in new commitments to contain temperature rise to 1.5 degrees this century. This goal will only be met provided that global emissions are halved by 2030 and net-zero emissions are achieved by 2050.

About Finnova Foundation (www.finnova.eu)

Finnova is a European foundation located in Brussels and Spain providing funds for innovative projects. Finnova aims at promoting public-private partnerships through innovation to tackle social challenges like employment, training, entrepreneurship, SDGs, and the circular economy, among others. Finnova is in charge of organising the Startup Europe Awards, an initiative by the European Commission and Finnova Foundation to reward the best European social start-ups.

About StartUp Europe Awards (www.startupeuropeawards.eu)

StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an initiative set up by the European Commission and is supported by the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament. The implementation of SEUA falls on Finnova and StartUp Europe. These awards are an open innovation tool to identify promising start-ups capable of solving current challenges. Additionally, SEUA strives to scale-up start-ups using a new strategy based on innovation by encouraging entrepreneurs to take a step forward and cooperate with organisations or professionals.

Events General-en

PUNCH displays its sustainable mobility and zero-emission technologies based on hydrogen in its Strasbourg factory

Belgian consortium organised a guided tour of its factory in Strasbourg to showcase its hydrogen-based and zero-emission technologies in the car manufacturing industry.
Lina Gálvez, MEP and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy, attended the event as we celebrated the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
This TechDay was held within the 19^th European Week of Regions and Cities.
Finnova, a leading organisation in managing EU funds for innovation and environmental projects, endorses PUNCH’s financing under Next Generation funds.

Brussels, 22.10.2021

Belgian consortium PUNCH, an independent group with over forty years of experience in the automobile and technological industry, held a guided tour through its Strasbourg factory on 20 October. The goal of this TechDay was to bring PUNCH’s work closer to society and to demonstrate its commitment to developing and upgrading state-of-the-art and zero-emission technologies for sustainable mobility using hydrogen. This event, which was attended by over 80 people, was supported by Finnova Foundation, a leading organisation managing EU funds for innovative and environmental projects. Finnova equally supports the financing of PUNCH’s project under Next Generation funds.

Attendees got to see first-hand PUNCH’s pickup prototype equipped with a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine – a byword of PUNCH’s commitment to clean and sustainable solutions.

PUNCH’s hydrogen-powered pickup prototype

PUNCH presented its vision for the energy transition and decarbonisation by putting forward alternative mobility solutions focusing on three fundamental levers: the current technologies and production means which enable energy transition; the uptake of specialised technologies for each sector; and the build-up of a controlled transition which takes into account its social and economic effects to preserve the existing supply base.

The event featured MEP and Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy, Lina Gálvez, who delivered the keynote address, Rudy Aernoudt, civil servant at the European Commission’s DG GROW, and a wide array of other representatives from institutions as well as experts in the automobile sector.

MEP Lina Gálvez, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

Finnova Foundation CEO, Juan Manuel Revuelta, said that “PUNCH’s project to re-industrialise the Nissan plants is a project eligible for EU funding, as it aims to secure 2,000 jobs and to transform these plants by ensuring decarbonisation and a zero-emission mobility using hydrogen which is capable of transporting heavy weights”. Mr Revuelta also stressed that PUNCH’s project focuses on Europe: “PUNCH’s pickup combines Italian innovation and technology from its Torino factory with the collaboration of its plants in Slovakia and Strasbourg (France)”. “PUNCH takes part in cross-regional cooperation, as this event is framed within the European Week of Regions and Cities and it is endorsed by DG MOVE. PUNCH’s candidacy is the most pro-European one – this Belgian family-owned company does believe in Europe of the Regions”, added Mr Revuelta.

European Week of Regions and Cities 2021

PUNCH’s TechDay is framed within the 19th European Week of Regions and Cities 2021 (an initiative endorsed by the Committee of the Regions), the most important event for regional and urban EU policies where international experts discuss EU cohesion policy. The 2021 programme, ‘Together for Recovery’, centers on the capacity of the EU and governments to support EU citizens and local communities via practical measures and public policies to invest in a fairer, greener, and more digital future as well as to make Europe spearhead the green transition. PUNCH strives to contribute to the EU’s endeavours in sustainable mobility and ecological transition thanks to the partnership of five European regions – Catalonia, Flanders, Piedmont, Grand Est, and Banská Bystrica.

The proposal of the PUNCH consortium, a project with European technological cooperation between Turin-Flanders-Catalonia, would create 2,000 jobs in Barcelona and would promote sustainable mobility. PUNCH ensures industrial continuity at Nissan’s Barcelona plants and is the most supported candidacy by trade unions. The objectives of this project are decarbonisation, green transition, sustainable mobility, the maintenance of jobs at the PUNCH factory, the promotion of technology transfer and public-private partnerships, and the support and attraction of innovative start-ups around the Hydrogen Automotive Startup Europe Accelerator by Finnova Foundation.

European Mobility Week

The technologies developed in the Punch project contribute to achieving zero CO₂emissions, one of the global challenges set by the UN and the EU. For this reason, this initiative, which was presented at Esferic Barcelona on 14 September, is also an official event within the framework of the European Mobility Week, an awareness-raising campaign of the European Commission’s DG MOVE aimed at raising public awareness and facilitating a change in habits through the promotion of clean and sustainable urban transport.

PUNCH Group

PUNCH is an independent group with 40 years of experience in the automotive and technology industry, 100% owned by the Belgian Dumarey family. The group employs 1,750 employees in 7 locations across Europe and Asia with an annual turnover of over half a billion euros.

PUNCH’s portfolio ranges from automatic transmissions and reducers for eAxles (PUNCH Powerglide), engines and control systems (PUNCH Torino), kinetic energy recuperation and storage systems (PUNCH Flybrid), to forged aluminium chassis parts (PUNCH Precision). PUNCH concentrated its existing expertise around hydrogen by creating PUNCH Hydrocells, which targets the development, supply, and integration of hydrogen-based propulsion and energy storage systems, reinforcing the PUNCH group’s commitment to Zero Emission technology. PUNCH’s customer base includes renowned OEMs and automotive suppliers such as General Motors, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, TATA, SAIC, Changan, ZF, and Marelli, to name a few.

About Finnova Foundation

Finnova Foundation is a Spanish-Belgian foundation which finances innovation. Finnova aims to promote public-private cooperation through innovation to address societal challenges such as jobs, training, entrepreneurship, the UN SDGs, and the circular economy, among others. Being committed to innovation, Finnova has been organising the Startup Europe Awards since 2016, an initiative of the European Commission’s DG Connect. Headquartered in Belgium and Spain, Finnova has its own delegations in Chile and Panama. In Spain, Finnova is present in Valencia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Madrid, and the Canary Islands.

www.finnova.eu

Events General-en

PUNCH will hold a TechDay in its Strasbourg factory to bring closer zero-emission technologies and sustainable mobility to the public

Brussels, 20 October 2021.

With over 40 years of experience in the automotive and technology industry, PUNCH is a Belgium independent group aiming to bring closer its top-notch technology to society. PUNCH’s technical know-how helps meet climate and environmental goals as well as ensures efficient and sustainable mobility. Consequently, PUNCH will open the doors of their Strasbourg factory to over 80 attendees, including EU representatives, companies, and media, on Wednesday 20 October from 9:30 to 12:30 CEST.

The first part of the TechDay will commence at 9:30 and will be devoted to welcoming attendees and visiting exhibited innovations from the PUNCH Group and its start-ups, including its H2-engine, eAxles, and its hydrogen-powered pickup prototype. At 10:15, the organisers of this event, PUNCH Group, will share their vision for a decarbonised future, followed by some keynote addresses and speeches by Guido Dumarey, Founder and CEO, PUNCH; Jean-Luc Heimburger, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Alsace; Alan Atassi, Chargé de mission restructuration et prevention des entreprises en difficulté, French Department for Economy, Finance, and Recovery and Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of Finnova Foundation, a leading organisation providing EU funds for innovation and environmental projects. On top of that, Finnova has facilitated NextGeneration funds for PUNCH. After this introduction, attendees will visit the ongoing production focused on Industry 4.0 and other innovative exhibits.

This event, which will coincide with the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, will feature the attendance of EU representatives, including Lina Gálvez, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. The TechDay will also host Mr. Alain Jund, Vice-chair of Mobility and Urban Matters at the Eurométropole of Strasbourg; Sigrid de Vries, Secretary-General at CLEPA, and several other representatives from French and German companies such as Peugeot, Bosch, or Heppner.

European Week of Regions and Cities 2021

PUNCH’s TechDay is framed within the 19^th European Week of Regions and Cities 2021 – an initiative endorsed by the Committee of the Regions –, the most important event on regional and urban EU policies where international experts discuss EU cohesion policy. The 2021 programme – ‘Together for Recovery’ – centers on the capacity of the EU and governments to support EU citizens and local communities via practical measures and public policies to invest in a fairer, greener and more digital future as well as to make Europe spearhead the green transition. PUNCH strives to contribute to the EU’s endeavors in sustainable mobility and ecological transition thanks to the partnership of five European regions – Catalonia, Flanders, Piedmont, Grand Est, and Banská Bystrica. The proposal of the PUNCH consortium – a project with European technological cooperation between Turin-Flanders-Catalonia – would create 2,000 jobs in Barcelona and would promote sustainable mobility. PUNCH ensures industrial continuity at Nissan’s Barcelona plants and is the most supported candidacy by trade unions. The objectives of this project are decarbonisation, green transition, sustainable mobility, the maintenance of jobs at the PUNCH factory, the promotion of technology transfer and public-private partnerships and the support and attraction of innovative start-ups around the Hydrogen Automotive Startup Europe Accelerator of the Finnova Foundation.

European Mobility Week

The technologies developed in the Punch project contribute to achieving zero CO₂ emissions, one of the global challenges set by the UN and the EU. For this reason, this initiative, which was presented at Esferic Barcelona on 14 September, is also an official event within the framework of the European Mobility Week, an awareness-raising campaign of the European Commission’s DG MOVE aimed at raising public awareness and facilitating a change in habits through the promotion of clean and sustainable urban transport.

PUNCH Group

About Finnova Foundation

Headquartered in Belgium and Spain, Finnova has its own delegations in Chile and Panama. In Spain, Finnova is present in Valencia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Madrid and the Canary Islands. www.finnova.eu

Events General-en News

The seventh NEXT LATAM-EU GENERATION conference fulfils its aim of making cooperation, solidarity and innovation key tools for the prevention, reduction and management of disasters

A debate was held on how innovation works to solve and manage all types of natural disasters and their impacts.

Speakers from 9 different realities, including institutional representatives, experts and entrepreneurs, took part in this session

In line with the challenges launched at this event, the European Commission’s COP26 StartUp Europe Awards will be presented at the United Nations COP26 in November

Brussels, 14.10.2021 – The seventh NEXT LATAM-EU GENERATION conference, entitled “EU-LATAM cooperation and natural disasters: prevention, combating and regeneration“, was held on the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction and highlights the importance of cooperation, solidarity and innovation in order to reduce the impact of natural disasters produced by climate change. During the conference, the volcano tragedy of La Palma in the Canary Islands, the more than 510,000 deaths registered in the last 50 years due to natural disasters linked to climate change in Latin America, as well as the economic losses caused by earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and floods and droughts caused by El Niño phenomenon, were some of the disasters reminded during this event.

The aim of this initiative is to offer sustainable and innovative solutions to reduce natural disasters by linking EU Member States and Latin America. It also calls to develop joint projects benefiting from European funding in the wake of the La Palma volcano phenomenon, which is leaving its aftermath in the peripheral regions, which are more vulnerable and exposed to the impact of climate change. The conference featured speakers from 9 countries on both sides of the Atlantic, who highlighted the need to create management techniques and urgent

measures to help mitigate the impact of natural disasters. Each participant, from their own national contexts, explained how the integration of innovative projects in society can serve to manage and coordinate the main recurring disasters that they are likely to face due to the new climate reality. In the opening of the event, Juan Manuel Revuelta, Finnova CEO, insisted on the need for cooperation in the field of natural disasters, as well as their prevention and the benefits of the application of disruptive solutions for the recovery of affected areas, mentioning the volcano in La Palma as a current example.

Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of the Finnova Foundation, moderator of the event

The first block of presentations included Leda Sánchez Bettucci, president of the executive council of Ceresis: Regional Seismology Centre for South America, who gave an overview of the seismic panorama in Uruguay and highlighted the need to improve infrastructures and techniques to face a natural disaster, and José Luis Rojo Franco, head of productive development programmes and humanitarian focal point of the AECID technical cooperation office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. José Luis pointed out the improvement made in the humanitarian response and local preparation in the August 2021 earthquake compared to the one in 2010 and emphasize the need for urgent action as well as local preparation and capacity to manage aid as key elements for an effective humanitarian response.

Leda Sánchez Betucci, President of the Executive Board of Ceresis: Regional Seismology Centre for South America (left) and José Luis Rojo Franco, Head of Productive Development Programmes and Humanitarian Focal Point of the AECID Technical Cooperation Office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (right).

The event was followed by the participation of several experts in the field such as Nora Wolloch, executive manager of WSA; João Bosco Coura dos Reis, researcher associated with the MAP-Fire project; Barbarita Lara Martínez, leader of the S!E: Emergency Information System and Frederico de Moraes Rudorff, monitoring and alert coordinator, who presented various digital platforms that allow the management of risks and impacts of forest risks or floods and applications that allow sending text messages without Internet access or mobile networks in the event of a natural disaster, among others, from countries such as Chile, Brazil or Austria.

Nora Wolloch, WSA executive manager (top left); João Bosco Coura dos Reis, MAP-Fire research associate (top right); Barbarita Lara Martínez, S!E: Emergency Information System project leader (bottom left) and Frederico de Moraes Rudorff, monitoring and warning coordinator (bottom right).

Juan Viesca, director of European funds at Finnova, presented the European Union’s cooperation programmes for financing projects in the field of disaster prevention and natural catastrophes such as floods, fires, earthquakes, storms and droughts.

*Juan Viesca, Director of European Funds at the Finnova Foundation*

From the institutional side, Christophe Pateron, deputy head of Unit, Emergency Management and RescEU of the European Commission, general management ECHO, presented the EU Civil Protection Mechanism which coordinates the European Union’s response in the field of natural and man-made disasters.

*Christophe Pateron, Deputy Head of Unit, Emergency Management and EU Rescue, European Commission, Directorate-General ECHO*

In the last block of the webinar, several entrepreneurs shared success stories linked to natural disasters. This part was attended by Alejandro Correa, head of the agricultural applications department at Drone Hopper, who presented the use of drones as tools for extinguishing fires; Leonardo Melgarejo, CEO of CivilSig, a Peruvian satellite that reports and warns of natural disasters and indicates the safe places in such cases; and Leonardo Rico, CEO of Lluvia Sólida, who mentionned the creation of a polymer that prevents the passage of fire on the ground to avoid putting the lives of firefighters at risk. Along the same lines, Héctor Juan, European projects technician at the Finnova Foundation, explained the FIREPOCTEP project, which aims to adapt to climate change through the prevention and management of the landscape exposed to forest fires in cross-border rural areas between Spain and Portugal.

Alejandro Correa, Head of Agriculture Applications Department at Drone Hopper (top left); Leonardo Melgarejo, CEO of CivilSig (top right); and Leonardo Rico, CEO of Lluvia Sólida (bottom left) and Héctor Juan, European projects technician at the Finnova Foundation (bottom right).

To close with a flourish and give continuity to the cooperation and innovation of the NEXT LATAM-EU GENERATION conference, Juan Manuel Revuelta launched the 4 challenges of the COP26 Startup Europe Awards in 4 categories, whose prizes will be awarded at the corresponding official COP26 events, co-organised by Finnova during the month of November. The first event and challenge will take place on Friday 5 November in Brussels, having bioeconomy as main subject and exposing Life Ecodigestion 2.0 project as a success story. The second event and challenge will take place from La Palma, with representatives from LATAM and the United Kingdom in the circular economy, in particular, the textile and fashion sector, accompanied by a case of success such as the European project CircularInooBooster and its accelerator CirCoAX, on Saturday 6 November. Subsequently, on Monday 8 November, the awards for innovations in the field of prevention, management and reduction of forest fires will be presented by the Interreg project Iberian Centre for Research and Fight against Forest Fires (CILIFO). Finally, on Friday 12

November, the sustainable mobility challenge will be awarded with the support of Malaga City Council.

Finnova mentioned the Ibero-American congress of Family Businesses and SMEs on Wednesday 20 October in Alcobendas (Madrid) as part of the cooperation sessions of the NEXT LATAM-EU GENERATION conference.

About Next LATAM-EU Generation

The project proposed with Next LATAM-EU Generation was born after the Ibero-American Congress of Family Businesses and SMEs, held last January by the Business Market Network. In the congress was highlighted the need for transatlantic collaboration to face common challenges in both continents, such as COVID-19. In this sense, sharing knowledge and creating synergies are the fundamental pillars of these monthly conferences that cover topics framed in the SDG of the United Nations and promote innovation through the open innovation methodology of the European Commission that implements Finnova Startup Europe Awards.

Pre-events

The Next LATAM-EU Generation cycle is divided into nine online events held on the second Tuesday of each month related to the United Nations SDG. These events end with the StartUp Europe Awards ceremony of the European Commission.

On the first conference, held on 8 March to coincide with International Women’s Day, speakers such as, Patricia Llombart, former ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Colombia; Liskel Álvarez, councillor delegate for external action of the inter-island council of Tenerife and Adriana Vargas, head of the trade section of the Colombian Mission to the European Union, discussed the vision of women in LATAM-EU business cooperation, within the framework of innovation and entrepreneurship. The second conference, on 6 April, entitled “Challenges and opportunities for tourism through LATAM-EU cooperation in the context of the COVID-19 health crisis” was held on the occasion of World Health Day, dealt with the actual

challenges facing the tourism sector and how to address them. Manuel Vegas, president of the spanish Association of Hotel Managers (AEDH), Antonio López de Ávila, co-founder and CEO of Tourism Data Driven Solutions (TDDS) and Irene Sánchez, business creation manager at EIT Health Spain, among others, took part in the event.

The third conference, held on 11 May same day as the World Recycling Day, was entitled: “Challenges of the circular economy in LATAM-EU cooperation as a model of production and consumption for sustainability” and was attended by Isabel Silva Souza, ambassador of the European Commission’s Climate Pact, Álvaro Hernández, president of the Board of Directors of Inboplast, Sharam Yalda, partner of CirCoAX and founder of HumanNation, Alonso Salguero, CEO of GTA Ingeniería y Medioambiente, and Giuseppe Liberati, executive director of Bridging Value, among others.

The fourth webinar of the Next LATAM-EU Generation cycle, “Entrepreneurship and water: Engine of economic recovery and social development of regions and municipalities“, was held on Tuesday 13 July during the celebration of World Population Day and World Oceans Day. It was attended by Rafael Heredero, policy advisor at EurEau secretariat (Brussels), Javier Vázquez Hueso, EMALGESA CEO and deputy mayor of Algeciras City Council, Luis Lehmann, international expert in circular economy, Juan Carlos Gázquez, director of Cajamar Innova – Incubator of High Technology Companies in Water in Cajamar Foundation, Josu Gómez Barrutia, Red Business Market CEO, and Adrián Nadal, Bioferric Ink CEO, among many others. On Tuesday 10 August, the fifth day of the NEXT LATAM – EU Generation sessions took place, with the honorary participation of H.E. Mr. Darío Chiru, Panama’s ambassador in Belgium. The event, entitled “Training and mobility opportunities for young professionals and entrepreneurs”, was held on World Youth Day by Finnova and Startup Europe Awards in collaboration with Red Business Market and the Ibero-American Congress of Family Businesses and SMEs. The aim was to offer training opportunities within the framework of

the EU, promote transnational mobility and improve the employability of young people.

On 21 September, the sixth event was held as part of the proposals planned for Next LATAM-EU Generation. The event focused on sustainable development and circular economy for professionals in the tourism sector in Latin American countries (LATAM) and the EU countries, with the participation of Natalia Bayona, director of innovation, education and investment of the World Tourism Organization. The aim of the conference was to highlight the importance of tourism in the national and international economy and to generate synergies or common projects between the two areas.

About Finnova 

Finnova is a foundation working to promote and to develop innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit across the EU. Based in Brussels, it works and engages in partnerships in all EU countries. Finnova’s experience in leading communication activities and disseminating European projects is coupled with an extensive expertise in creating enterprises and entrepreneurial support programmes such as accelerators, incubators, and events.