Day: 18 November 2021

• This event will be held to celebrate the recent announcement on the start of trading under the interim Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Ghana.
• Panellists include inter alia representatives from institutions, scholars on EU-Ghana/Africa relations, several experts on mobility and energy, and entrepreneurs.
• It will take place on Friday 19 November 2021 at 16:00 (CET)/15:00 (Accra time) on the eve of Africa Industrialization Day.
• The event will feature the launch of the open call to find potential partners in Africa to carry out the Energy Africa Startup Europe Awards in early 2022.

Brussels, 18 November 2021 – To commemorate the recent announcement on the onset of effective implementation of the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (iEPA) between the EU and Ghana, Finnova Foundation will hold a webinar on Friday 19 November 2021 at 16:00 (CET)/15:00 (Accra time) with representatives from both regions. The event will also be held on the eve of Africa Industrialization Day (20 Nov.), an initiative launched by the United Nations to foster Africa’s sustainable development.

According to the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU is one of Ghana’s key trade partners – Ghana’s total trade value with the EU was estimated to be nearly 20% in 2018. These figures, however, are expected to rise in light of the recent announcement on the start of trading and the effective implementation of the interim Economic Partnership Agreement between Ghana and the EU, which facilitates commercial exchanges and the removal of a number of technical hindrances.

The event will be held on the eve of Africa Industrialization Day (20 Nov.), which was proclaimed by the United Nations within the framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa (1991-2000). In 2016, the UN approved the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (2016-2025), which focuses on ensuring Africa’s sustainable industrialisation by respecting the planetary boundaries. Consequently, this event will devote a specific panel to discussing green energies and carbon-free mobility as a means to reach Africa’s sustainable industrial development. The webinar will be broken down into five main panels: institutions, innovation and entrepreneurship, energy and mobility, EU funds, and training and education. It will feature Finnova CEO Juan Manuel Revuelta‘s keynote address as well as the contributions of some institutional representatives like Regina Nesiama Miller (African Development Bank Group), Alexander Charalambous (EU SWITCH to Green Facility), and Juan Jesús Rodríguez Marichal (Cámara de Comercio de Fuerteventura); scholars and innovative entrepreneurs like Jacob Fohtung (Global Prosperity at Clayton Christensen Institute),Prof Leendert de Bell (Utrecht University of Applied Sciences), Gameli Adzaho (Just One Giant Lab) and Cornelius Nartey (Africa Association of Entrepreneurs); experts on mobility and energy like Shantha Bloemen (Mobility for Africa), Festus Loma (Nigeria Electrification Project), Tony Tiyou (Renewables in Africa), Roberto Vigotti (RES4Africa Foundation) and Gonzalo Piernavieja Izquierdo (Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias); and Finnova’s experts on EU funds i.e., Juan Viesca, as well as training and education i.e., Alberto Navarro.

“Finnova is committed to Africa’s and Ghana’s green transition and endeavours to tackle climate change. We hope EU-Ghana’s arrangements will play a decisive role in ensuring successful follow-through as well as contributing to the United Nation’s ambitions e.g., SDGs and the goals of Africa Internationalization Day. Similarly, we believe public-private partnerships remain crucial and that innovation is pivotal, as can be seen in all the projects we are involved in and which were discussed at COP26. In this regard, EU-funded initiatives like Startup Europe Awards and breakthrough and low-cost technologies will surely help meet our common challenges, which will require a public-private partnership approach”, said Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of Finnova Foundation.

This event will take place following Finnova’s participation at COP26, where it co-organised four official events, one of them being on green energies and bioeconomy and another one being on sustainable mobility. The event will feature the launch of the open call to find potential partners in Africa to carry out the Energy Africa Startup Europe Awards in early 2022. This announcement will take place against a backdrop of the new 2021-2027 EU financial period, which will enable to advance green energies and sustainable mobility. The announcement will be made by Foro Euroafricano (Josu Gómez Barrutia) and World Diplomatic Institute (Jean Aznar). As a sidenote, Finnova endorses the CLIMA-RISK[1] project, which will be presented during the Africagua event as well as in the Next Ghana Generation EU webinar.

By holding this webinar, Finnova is kicking off its cooperation with Ghana and Africa. This event will provide a timely opportunity to bring together European and Ghanaian and African actors to meet the challenges the 21^st century poses through open innovation.

If you represent a public or private institution, if you run a business, if you are a youth or if you have innovative or disruptive ideas, do not hesitate to join us by registering here: http://ghana.inscripciones.finnova.eu/.

About Finnova Foundation

Finnova Foundation is a Belgian-Spanish foundation which helps institutions and organisations receive funds for innovative projects. It aims to promote private-public cooperation through innovation in order to address social challenges, e.g., employment, training, entrepreneurship, SDGs, circular economy, etc. Finnova is in charge of organising Startup Europe Awards, a joint initiative by Finnova and the European Commission to reward the best European start-ups.

About Startup Europe Awards

Startup Europe Awards is an initiative by DG CONNECT which has been implemented by Finnova Foundation since 2016. Startup Europe Awards is an open innovation mechanism to identify disruptive start-ups and to promote private-public partnerships. SEUA also seeks to raise awareness on the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driving force for job creation. In addition to promoting networks to meet the UN SDGs and the European Green Deal objectives, SEUA also contributes to the circular economy, sustainable tourism, and the fight against climate change.

• The event will take place online on Wednesday 24 November 2021 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (CET).
• During the occasion, international experts will present solutions for the improved management of forest and agricultural residues in order to reduce forest fires.
• The event will be an opportunity to learn about opportunities and calls for proposals for European funds.

Brussels, 15.11.2021

Next Wednesday, 24 November 2021, from 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. (CET), the online event “FIREPOCTEP Training Day. Exchange of good practices in sustainable management of forestry and agricultural waste” will be held. It is organised by the Finnova Foundation in the framework of the European Week for Waste Reduction. This event aims to show solutions for improving waste management in forestry and agriculture in order to reduce the risk of forest fires and their effects in the Raya area (border between Spain and Portugal).

This initiative (registration here) aims to create joint tools to facilitate risk management in the cross-border cooperation territory by capitalising on the results, knowledge, and good practices in forest and agricultural waste management. In addition, this training action is expected to reduce the risk of forest fires in the cross-border cooperation territory, as well as to contribute to the communication and dissemination of the results of the FIREPOCTEP project.

The calls for proposals, lines of financing, and programmes offered by the European Union for the sustainability of the project will also be analysed, from the perspective of experts in European projects from the Finnova Foundation.

The conference will be attended by international experts in the environmental field such as Inmaculada Vázquez, member of the Environment and Water Agency of Andalusia (AMAYA) and coordinator of FIREPOCTEP; Jose Manuel Requena, European project manager and coordinator of the FIREPOCTEP project at the Finnova Foundation; Héctor Juan Armas, FIREPOCTEP project technician; Francisco Rodríguez, director of the Forest Fire Laboratory (Labifuco); Sofia Martins, project manager at the Comunidade Intermunicipal do Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL); Ana Luisa Abreu Alferes, senior technician at the ICT-Instituto de Ciências da Terra of the University of Évora, among others.

FIREPOCTEP works for an effective control of forest fires and addresses their consequences to prevent their occurrence from the base, through training and an approach oriented to the mitigation of climate change with emphasis on the rural environment. A set of 21 beneficiaries makes the project consortium, both Portuguese and Spanish. The project strives to improve forest fire prevention and suppression efforts in the cross-border region between Spain and Portugal.

About Interreg FIREPOCTEP (http://www.firepoctep.eu)  The project “Strengthening of cross-border forest fire prevention and extinction systems and improvement of resources for the generation of rural employment post Covid-19 (FIREPOCTEP)” is within the framework of the fourth call of the Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020 (POCTEP). It is 75% co-financed by the ERDF Funds with a total budget of 5.6 million euros. With a duration of 3 years (01/01/2019 to 31/12/2021), the main objective of the project is to analyse the impact of climate change on the risk of fires and their effects on the environment of the Raya (border territory between Spain and Portugal). To this end, joint tools will be created to facilitate risk management in the cooperation territory through the capitalisation of results, knowledge, and good practices.

FIREPOCTEP will not only improve cooperation and coordination of fire-fighting forces, but will also be an example of good practices focused on the protection and promotion of the environment. This will allow the creation of employment and innovation in rural areas through training actions, supporting the local economy, and the conservation of the landscape.

About Finnova Foundation (http://www.finnova.eu)

Finnova is a foundation working to promote and to develop innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit across the EU. Based in Brussels and Spain, 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.

On Tuesday, November 16^th 2021, the European final of the EEPA awards took place in Portoroz, Slovenia, and the award was conferred to the Interreg CILIFO project on forest firefighting and prevention.

• The CILIFO project gains European recognition, for implementing the world’s first accelerator/incubator focused on forest fires, called “Firefighting Open Innovation Lab“.
• The Finnova Foundation receives the award in Portoroz Slovenia.
• During the ceremony, the Finnova Foundation announced its commitment to create green jobs by extending innovation centers through to the European funds in Africa, Latin America and in other regions of Europe (Mediterranean, Atlantic, Macaronesia, Baltic Danube, Adriatic and Central Europe)

The European Commission, in association with the Committee of the Regions, has awarded the CILIFO project, funded by Interreg project coordinated by the Junta de Andalucía, along with the co-organizer, the Finnova Foundation, at European level within the 4^th category: “Support for the internationalization of enterprises” of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA).

Finnova was also present at the recent COP26 in Glasgow on November 8^th, in a face-to-face and virtual event, together with Helmholtz Climate Initiative and Forestry Division of FAO, on deforestation and firefighting entitled “Forest ecosystems trends and innovation: satellite observation, simulations, and firefighting” which was also attended by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Regional Government of Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena.

The proposal of the Iberian Centre for Forest Fire Research and Fighting (CILIFO) presented by the project partner Finnova, through the Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO, enabled the achievement of this award by the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission.

The awards ceremony was held within the framework of the Annual Assembly of the European SME week that took place from November 15^th to November 17^th, in 2021 in Portoroz, on behalf of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Annual Assembly of Small and Medium Enterprises is the most important event for the SMEs across Europe.

Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, and Zdravko Počivalšek, Minister of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia headed the opening of the “2021 SME Assembly”. Thomas Wobben, Director for Legislative Works of the European Committee of the Regions, was also present, representing the institution that have conferred the prestigious European awards.

Support and recognition of entrepreneurship in the European Union

With a total of 6 categories, the prestigious European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) at the gala event “European Entreprise Promotion and Small and Mid-Caps Award” which are celebrating their 15th edition this year, recognized and rewarded those initiatives that exceptionally support the entrepreneurial spirit, foster entrepreneurship, and raise awareness of the innovative role that all the start-ups, SMEs and companies, collectively play within the European social fabric. Raúl Blanco, General Secretariat for Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises of the Spanish Government was the one who informed the consortium that CILIFO was the national winner of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) within the 4^th category: “Support for the internationalization of enterprises”. Moreover, the project has always counted on the support of the European Union and specifically the Sevillian Member of the European Parliament, Juan Ignacio Zoido.

The green and sustainable economic recovery

As Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of the Finnova Foundation, mentioned during his speech at the ceremony, we are witnessing the largest stimulus package ever, not only at European level, but worldwide. In the period 2021 – 2027, the EU will be endowed with an economic budget that is 12 times the Marshall Plan, for the recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic through the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the NextGenerationEU recovery funds.

These funds are aimed not only at economic recovery, but also at achieving it in a sustainable manner. For all these reasons, the CILIFO project coordinated by the Junta de Andalucía together with the Finnova Foundation, exposed in this official act its objective of achieving an increase in the budget in order to be directly proportional in the field of forest management and recovery from forest fire, to continue with its work of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

With the international recognition of this project financed by the Interreg POCTEP Spain – Portugal 2014 – 2020 Program with 24.6 M€, the largest budget in the field of forest fire prevention and extinction in the European Union, which is led by the Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Desarrollo Sostenible, the importance of these European funds in the economic and social recovery is highlighted.

Under the umbrella of CILIFO, extending its good practices to Castilla y León, Galicia, Extremadura and all Iberian Portugal, another project of the Junta de Andalucía has been framed, financed with European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), that seeks to strengthen cross-border systems for the prevention and extinction of forest fires and the improvement of resources for the generation of rural employment post Covid-19. This project, called FIREPOCTEP, dispose of 5.6 million euros and it is driven by the Interreg VA Spain-Portugal Cooperation Program (POCTEP) 2014 – 2020 financed by 75%.

Awarded the first accelerator in the world about forest management

CILIFO’s partner Finnova Foundation, which attended the ceremony to receive the award, has been implementing the Startup Europe Accelerator open innovation methodology for more than 10 years. In this sense, the public-private partnership with the Junta de Andalucía creating the “Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO” is notable for being the first accelerator/incubator in the world, focused on prevention and extinction of forest fires, adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

The project currently counts on entities, applicable in the LIFE Programs within the European Union, with 32 accelerated entities at European level and two at intercontinental level (Mexico and Brazil). In order to contribute to the transfer of knowledge, the Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO places at the disposal a “Catalogue of Innovative Solutions” which showcases up to 24 accelerated companies with their technologies.

The general director of the Finnova Foundation, Juan Manuel Revuelta, encouraged in his speech at the event to present projects, using a network of innovation centers in forest management, firefighting and climate change prevention with funding from the European Union. At the ceremony, the Finnova Foundation announced its commitment to create green jobs by extending innovation centers with European funds in Africa, Latin America and in regions of Europe (Mediterranean, Atlantic, Macaronesia, Baltic, Danube areas and  Adriatic and Central Europe) through Interreg, Life, Horizon and Euroclima funds.

About Finnova Foundation (www.finnova.eu)

Finnova is a foundation working to promote and develop innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. It is a European foundation based in Brussels and Spain, whose objectives are to promote public-private cooperation through innovation to address social challenges such as employment, training, entrepreneurship, the United Nations SDGs, circular economy, etc. Finnova organizes the Startup Europe Awards, an initiative of the European Commission and the Finnova Foundation, to recognize the best European startups in the social field.

About StartUp Europe

StartUp Europe is driven by the European Commission to promote the business ecosystem for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) entrepreneurs so that their ideas and businesses can start to grow and affirm themselves in the European Union. With this initiative, the Commission seeks to respond to the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

About StartUp Europe Accelerathon (www.acceleratho.eu) StartUp Europe Accelerathon is an acceleration program for innovative projects promoted by the Finnova Foundation that aims to find solutions and funding through an online system of applied open innovation that brings together the innovative ecosystem in different sectors. Startup Europe Accelerathon is based on the hackathon methodology, which aims to find innovative solutions to challenges. For this, an online competition methodology is established with training, mentors, jury and a prize “European acceleration ticket” with the aim of presenting the project to a European funding program, such as LIFE (2021-2027) with a budget of about 2 million euros and with a duration of 3 to 5 years. The challenges follow the indications of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

About Interreg FIREPOCTEP (www.firepoctep.eu)

The project, strengthening of cross-border systems of prevention and extinction of forest fires and improvement of resources for the generation of rural employment post Covid-19 (FIREPOCTEP), positions itself under the fourth call of the Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2014-2020 (POCTEP), co-financed at 75% by the ERDF Funds with a total budget of 5.6 million euros. With a duration of 3 years (01/01/2019 to 31/12/2021) the project’s main objective is the analysis of the impact of climate change on fire risk and its effects in the environment of the Raya (Spain and Portugal). To this end, joint tools will be created to facilitate risk management in the cooperation territory through the capitalization of results, knowledge and best practices. FIREPOCTEP will not only improve cooperation and coordination of fire-fighting forces but will also serve as an example of good practices focused on the protection and promotion of the environment which, in turn, allows the creation of employment and innovation in rural areas through training actions, supporting the local economy and landscape conservation.