Catégorie : Neuvelles

The Canarian Government is leading a public partnership for training on the Social and Economic Recovery Fund in the Canary Islands, co-organised with the University of Las Palmas, the University of La Laguna, the Canarian Council of the European Movement, the Finnova Foundation and Atlantic Euroconsulting and addressed to public administration, private companies and the third sector in the Canary Islands.

Gran Canaria, 25^th of January. The new financial period begins with the milestone of being the largest and most ambitious economic recovery effort in history, with 12% of the EU’s GDP, compared to the Marshall Plan, which at the time was 1.5% of GDP. Spain has been allocated 150 billion euros, so the Canary Islands should make effective use of its quota to meet the challenges of employment, economic recovery, innovation in tourism, sustainable agriculture and sustainable development.

Almudena Estévez, Vice-Minister of Economy and Internationalisation of the Canarian Government, was responsible for the inauguration of the training programme on project presentation in the Canary Islands EUROPEAN FUNDS NEXT GENERATION. Rosa María Aguilar, Rector of the University of La Laguna, stressed the importance of a competitive and diversified economy and Rafael Robaina, Rector of the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, underlined the role of universities in the process and the need for a more resilient economy.

The virtual meeting allowed attendees to connect with Brussels, with senior officials from the European Commission and MEPs such as Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament, who encouraged the Canary Islands to take advantage of the financial opportunities. On behalf of the European Commission, Miguel Gil Tertre, Head of unit in the Task Force RECOVER, participated, as well as Massimiliano Dragoni, senior Official in the Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technologies (DG CONNECT), who explained the importance of digitalisation and the STARTUPEUROPE methodology to promote entrepreneurship and self-employment. On behalf of DG GROW, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Rudy Aernoudt, Chief Economist, spoke, highlighting in macroeconomic terms the EU’s effort and describing NEXT GENERATION as the most ambitious economic recovery programme in history, equivalent to 12% of EU GDP and comparing it to the Marshall Plan, which was 1.5% of GDP.

Lucas Andrés Pérez, Vice President of the Canary Islands Council of the European Movement, announced the start of the « new period of EU funds in the 2021-2027 seven-year period, with an unprecedented economic recovery plan« . For his part, José Manuel Martínez, State Civil servant and Secretary of Valladolid City Council, spoke of the contractual and sectoral management of European funds, which, according to him,  » they represent a great effort and responsibility, after the economic situation caused by the COVID-19 health crisis ».

Juanma Revuelta, CEO of Finnova, insisted on reinforcing the holistic vision that allows synergies and financing projects by identifying the most appropriate financial tool, converting LIFE or Interreg pilot projects that have worked into Next Generation projects, « It is about turning the Canary Islands archipelago into an island laboratory of practical innovation of demonstration projects in water efficiency, renewable energies, agriculture and sustainable tourism, promotion of the blue economy and innovation in the agricultural sector, » said Revuelta. He also urged the Canary Islands to take advantage of its fiscal attractiveness and geographical location as a gateway to Africa and a platform towards Latin America and recommended the public-private participation methodology to help reprogramme 12.3 billion euros that Spain has not absorbed in the 2014-2020 period, a period in which approximately 65% of the funds have not been spent, with Spain being the last EU country in terms of absorption.

During his presentation, Juan Viesca, Director of Funds at the Finnova Foundation, explained the different funds provided by the European Commission and underlined the lack of benefit that Spain has derived from all this, since « it has only spent 20,000 million of the 44,000 million available ». The Next Generation programme adds even more funds, which Viesca describes as « difficult to spend », and proposes that the Canary Islands « exploit the exclusive axis available to them: that of the ultra-peripheral regions, which would mean even more budget for the islands ».

Cristina Tavío, an International Consultant from Finnova Brussels, began her speech with the slogan « for a fair, green and digital recovery » and recalled that « there will be no green without blue, as many of the answers to resilience and sustainability come from the seas and oceans ». The Canary Islands, bathed by the Atlantic Ocean, would be a source for diversifying the economy and meeting the green challenge (or Green Deal), through its maritime strategy. Furthermore, Tavío recalled that « the revolution towards resilience to which the EU is encouraging us is a green revolution which, of course, must also be digital ».

In the closing session, Carolina Lechado, engineer and Director of the EU funds area in Water and Circular Economy, intervened from Tenerife, who alluded to the water problem and stressed the importance of the circular economy and low-cost sustainable desalination: « Of all the water on the entire planet Earth, only 2.5% is fresh water. And of that 2.5%, less than 1% is available for human consumption », explaining different LIFE projects that have become Next Generation.

José Manuel Requena, Director of European Territorial Cooperation at Finnova, mentioned the importance of capitalising Interreg projects in the framework of Next Generation. These are an engine of economic impulse and job creation, based on the good practices and results already worked in the intervention territory. Therefore, he encouraged Interreg MAC and Europe project partners to host a young Canarian to train the necessary professionals in the management of European affairs.

In the area of business recovery, Adrián Noheda, Director of the Innovation and Internationalisation Area of Finnova offered companies and entities with innovative solutions in the field of firefighting and recovery of burnt areas free support in fundraising and legal advice from the accelerator Firefighting Open Innovation Lab CILIFO (24.5 million euros). In the field of textiles and circular economy, he explained the recently approved COSME CircularInnobooster project, which finances start-ups in the textile and sustainable fashion sector to access Horizon Europe and LIFE programmes. This methodology could become a Next Generation project in the Canary Islands: « If we present projects to Next Generation based on projects with seals of excellence or LIFE, we guarantee their continuity and success in their execution« .  Regarding the funds for youth training, Héctor Juan, junior Project Officer in sustainability and circular economy, from Atlantic Euroconsulting Fuerteventura highlighted the opportunities for biodiversity, green employment and circular economy in the Canary Islands. He also encouraged young people to take advantage of the NEXTALENT GENERATION programme and other ones such as Garantía Juvenil to be trained in Brussels as a European affairs manager.

Jorge Núñez, Senior Researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels, explained the ways of qualitative and quantitative measurement of the social impact that Covid-19 has had and will have, alluding to GDP and highlighting the high unemployment rate and the environmental problems arising from the current health crisis.

Canary Islands and Next Generation Training Platform: next steps for the period 2021-2027, with implementation until 2030

The Canary Islands has been a pioneer in Spain starting the new financial period 2021 with the organisation of these training days, which have had a massive learning impact, with more than 700 registered participants and reaching more than 390 participants connected simultaneously.

27% of the registrations came from public administrations, 38% from private companies, 8% from the third sector, 9% from public companies and the remaining 18% of participants were from other organisations, such as universities or journalists.

With regard to the projects generated on the first day, 41 proposals were received. In the coming days and until 25 January 2021, at 00:00 h, the deadline for submitting challenges and solutions will be opened. The Finnova Foundation and Atlantic Euroconsulting have created an electronic platform for Networking and Project Board, which is available to the Canarian society for participants, who will be able to join the challenges in the Canary Islands by fulfilling a form.

On Wednesday 27^th and Thursday 28^th January, Thematic Innovation Project Tables will be set up on good practices of the UN SDGs challenges, such as employment, sustainability and recovery, and to identify challenges that require innovative solutions to add the following four links:

– Define challenges in the Canary Islands: employment, recovery, Covid-19, energy, etc.

– Find technological solutions to these challenges.

– Identify the most appropriate European funds and financial lines.

– Identify and put together the entities that can be linked.

The way it works is as follows: On each day there are different panels, organised by theme, in 30-minute sessions, with speakers who are experts in European Funds. Those interested can participate in the session on Wednesday 27^th and interact with the speakers of the first session, which took place on Wednesday 20^th January. Those interested in contacting the speakers of the second day, held on Thursday 21^st, will be able to participate in the session on Thursday 28^th.

If you are interested, sign up here!

About Startup Europe Awards

It is a methodology of the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, implemented by the Finnova Foundation since 2016. The SEUAs are an open innovation tool for identifying disruptive startups that promotes public-private collaboration and raises awareness of the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driver of employment. In addition to generating alliances that help to meet the SDGs of the United Nations and the actions of the European Green Deal, thus contributing to the circular economy, the fight against climate change and sustainable tourism.

About HealthCare Startup Europe Accelerathon

The Finnova Foundation, in collaboration with the Canary Islands Health Service, and Atlantic Euroconsulting are launching the « HealthCare Waste Startup Europe Accelerathon » challenge to offer solutions to the challenge of reducing healthcare waste.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 85% of the waste generated by healthcare activities is non-hazardous compared to household waste, while the remaining 15% is considered hazardous material, whether infectious, chemical or radioactive. This is a fact to be taken into account, as waste management and hygienic conditions are essential to protect human health during outbreaks such as Covid-19.

For more information: www.accelerathon.eu

About Atlantic Euroconsulting 

Atlantic Euroconsulting works every day to offer the best advice and management of European funds to public and private companies. Other areas of expertise include renewable energies, sustainable development, circular economy, water and waste management, employment and youth, TC and tourism, among others. With all this, Atlantic Euroconsulting aims to promote a culture of innovation through smart strategies and practices in different entities, institutions, organisations and communities across the EU and other geographical areas.

For more information: www.atlanticeuroconsulting.com  

About Fundación Finnova 

European Foundation for the financing of innovation. It is a European foundation based in Brussels whose objectives are to promote public-private cooperation through innovation to address social challenges such as employment, training, entrepreneurship, the United Nations SDGs, the circular economy, etc. Finnova organises the Startup EuropeAwards, an initiative of the European Commission and the Finnova Foundation, to recognise the best European startups in the social field.   

For more information: www.finnova.eu

CONTACT

For more information: www.finnova.eu

Finnova Press: phones +34 666393444 and +34 696324236

23.10.2020. Last Wednesday, october 21st, 2020,  the last webinar of the Iberian Center for Research and Fight Against Forest Fires (CILIFO) was held within the framework of #EUGreenWeek and the only ‘side event’ of the project at #EURegionsWeek . The event, which dealt with European Union funding for innovative projects to combat forest fires and the protection of biodiversity, was organized by the Finnova Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Córdoba (CILIFO beneficiary entities) and the Provincial Council of Córdoba, collaborating entity.

During the event several topics were discussed: in the first block, some project beneficiaries talked about prevention, extinction of forest fires and protection of biodiversity; and the second block revolved around entrepreneurship, financing and community training. In the next block, a conference was held with the press, in which various media specializing in the environment, sustainability and climate change explained how they collaborate to protect, restore and promote sustainability and how they collaborate to fight against climate change. The day ended with the last block, which focused on the transfer of good practices, some of the companies annexed to the Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO accelerator presented themselves.

According to the data collected, it is estimated a total of 87 people were able to view the CILIFO webinar in the framework of #EUGreenWeek and #EURegionsWeek  (67 people registered to access Zoom and 20 people watched the event live on YouTube) . On this occasion, 27 speakers participated: 3.7% from Mexico; 29.6% from Portugal; and 66.7% from Spain.

You can watch the webinar again at the following link: https://youtu.be/0qC_KJnju5E

Below, you can read some of the statements of the speakers who participated in the third CILIFO webinar in the framework of #EUGreenWeek and #EURegionsWeek:

Maria de Lurdes Carvalho , Director of Regional Development Services at the Algarve Regional Development and Coordination Commission (CCDR), spoke about the Algarve fire research group.

“The mission of CCDR Algarve, in its geographic area, is to implement policies for the environment, urban and spatial planning, regional development and incentives for social communication and to provide technical support to local authorities and their associations.

Inmaculada Vázquez , from the Andalusian Environment and Water Agency (AMAYA) of the Junta de Andalucía, presented the CILIFO project.

“Among the results of the Project, we mainly highlight the creation of the Iberian Center for Research and Fight against Forest Fires (CILIFO), the design of a training plan, through which skills are acquired and the operations that make up will be accredited. those extinguishing devices both in the area of ​​Spain and Portugal; the design of a joint awareness plan on forest fires; and the launch of a joint investigation in the fight against forest fires ”.

Download the presentation here

Víctor Manuel Montoro Caba , deputy for European Programs and Electronic Administration of the Diputación de Córdoba, said that one of their objectives is for Córdoba to become the first province with 100% sustainable electric mobility.

« We are in a position to be the first province in Spain in which we can have an infrastructure network of electric vehicle recharging points in which at least each of the municipalities that make up the province of Córdoba has at least a charging point of municipal public ownership. « 

Francisco Rodríguez y Silva, head of the Forest Fire Defense Laboratory ETS of Agronomic and Forest Engineering at the University of Córdoba, explained some of the lines of research that they are dealing with.

“One of the most recent achievements has been to know the possibility of graduating the extinction difficulty index, that is, a tool designed to be able to make an evaluation before and during the time of the emergency. In context with the CILIFO Project, we are working to make a version along the same lines, to know in the provinces that are the object of the project how we can have a dynamic knowledge of the danger in terms of energy behavior, which means the difficulty to be able to work extinction ”.

Nuno Guiomar, researcher at the University of Évora at the Mediterranean Institute of Agriculture, Environment and Development spoke about the evolution of the work carried out by the University of Évora for CILIFO and the tools such as Copernicus to fight fires from the scientific-academic sphere.

“The evaluation of the severity of the fire is a fundamental instrument in the paradigm shift: initially we only considered the determination of the classical spectral indicators (dNBR and RdNBR), at this moment we add more of them (BAI2 and RBR). Regarding the RBR, we have introduced an innovation in compensation proposed by Sean Parks. We are considering including temporal variations in the combined Ludar / Radar data… ”.

Pedro Arala Chaves, florestal technician in the Algarve Intermunicipal Community (AMAL), made his presentation on the creation of forest brigades and forest technical cabinets to combat forest fires.

“The Intermunicipal Forestry Technical Cabinet (GTFI) and the Sapadores Florestais Brigade (bSF) have the purpose of increasing the resilience of the territory by promoting a new intervention logic in the forest territory, through the creation of forest brigades and technical forest offices between municipalities ”.

Margarida Jesus, technician of the Cabinet of Candidacies for Community Functions of the Municipal Chamber of Tavira, explained the management of aerial means for fire prevention in the Cachopo area and how it helps prevent forest fires.

“The Tavira Air Media Center will provide support in the event of a disaster, not only in this area, but also throughout the Algarve, Alentejo and Andalusia, also serving as a strategic base for the development of specific awareness and training campaigns for the Civil Protection agents and for the general population ”.

Download the presentation here

Victor Rosa, councilor of the Municipal Chamber of Castro Marim, explained that they have a project for a school to fight and fight forest fires on the Guadiana border.

« The municipality intends to participate in a joint strategy for the prevention and fight against forest fires, one of the great challenges of the Iberian Peninsula. »

José Chaparro, councilor of the Municipal Chamber of Monchique, spoke about the projects they had in the field of forest fire prevention in the municipality.

« Monchique has several competences at the level of civil protection and the defense of the forest against forest fires, there is a small municipal heliport in the municipality with the aim of hosting aerial means of combat and first intervention of forest fires »

Víctor Salgado, technician of the CILIFO Project at Fundación ONCE, gave a presentation on attention to diversity in the prevention and extinction of forest fires.

« In the development and innovation department we are improving a progressive web application, we will create accessible fire alerts in Portuguese and Spanish with shortcuts to ICT applications of accessible contact with 112 and as well as reporting other low-impact hazards such as rockfall , tree falls, flooded paths, etc. ”.

Juan Viesca , director of European Funds at the Finnova Foundation, presented some of the European calls open in the forestry field.

“Within the H2020 program, specifically within the Green Deal, the fight and prevention against forest fires is mentioned, this type of calls finances 100% non-profit organizations such as public administrations, which can allow collaboration with other countries such as the United States , Canada, and many others. « 

Beatriz Camacho Ávila, Director of Ecosystems of the Southern Europe Regional Innovation Plan – EIT Climate-KIC.

« EIT Climate-KIC is a European community of knowledge and innovation that works to achieve a prosperous, inclusive and resilient community to climate change, based on a circular economy of zero emissions. »

Download the presentation here

Beatriz Toro , head of the Institutional Relations Department, presented the EuroAAA Bulletin of the Junta de Andalucía.

“The Euroregion newsletter is bilingual, digital and designed to report on news of cross-border cooperation, European initiatives, territorial cooperation in the Euroregion, place the AAA Euroregion cooperation agent in the CTE, cross-border cooperation projects are managed with partners From both sides ».

Download the presentation here

Antonio Villarreal , journalist for El Confidencial.

« I want to invite the CILIFO consortium and its collaborators to send me the progress that is being developed in the project to try to inform the community in a much more direct, easy and clear way about current or historical cases of incidents with fire. »

Gustavo Gómez , CEO of Acento Comunicación.

« We have begun to hold a congress of shepherds that has had a lot of impact and that we have begun to organize together with another foundation, the Mil Caminos Foundation, and its objective is that the rural world serves as a job destination for many young people. »

Download the presentation here

Ismael Muñoz , director of OSBO Digital.

“The objectives we have are; connect the various actors involved in the fight against fires, share knowledge, experience and good practices; and disseminate to society the problem of forest fires, the existence of qualified professionals who avoid and fight them and generate a change of consciousness that helps prevent fires ”.

Download the presentation here

Pedro Pablo García , attached to the management of EFFE Verde

“EFE Verde is a global platform for news and environmental journalism of the EFE Agency, the project was presented in November 2019 and officially started on March 21, 2010 with the launch of the website www.efeverde.es . It is an informative reference but also a meeting point for companies, NGOs, institutions and all those entities and people interested in Spain in everything related to green information. « 

Download the presentation here

Lola Bordás , Marketing Director at the Finnova Foundation, presented the 2nd edition – Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA-CILIFO) 2020.

StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) are a highly useful open innovation tool to promote the exchange of experiences, add value to the business ecosystem and help start-ups to grow and position themselves in the market. The Finnova Foundation – beneficiary entity of the CILIFO Project – supported by the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission, specifically by the Directorate General for Communication and New Technologies (DG CONNECT), has already held and successfully launched several editions of these awards; and is organizing the 2nd Edition Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA-CILIFO). “StartUp Europe Awards, since 2016 is an initiative promoted by the European Commission and implemented by Finnova, supporting entrepreneurship throughout Europe. The prize is an acceleration ticket for the winning project.

Download the presentation here

Alexander Pereda Rodríguez , founder of La GIStería, exposed the Potential of GIS in the fight against fires.

“The real-time fire map was created in 2017 due to the increase in fires, and I was based on data provided by NASA from its VIIRS sensor, which captures high temperatures on the ground, but does not discriminate if those temperatures are forest fires or other reasons. This map meant a before and after since the burning of the Atlantic Corniche and after this disaster many maps similar to the one we had designed in La GIStería appeared ”.

Pedro Ruíz , Director of Innovation at Integrasys SA.

“We developed an application for tracking (positioning) and communication when facing fire, combining various technologies, such as the new European positioning system for the Galileo Satellite. We also mix new communication technologies to ensure that we always have communication at all times and in adverse situations. Thanks to these characteristics the firefighters will be able to face the fire as well informed and positioned as possible, without a doubt a great approach ”.

Download the presentation here

Leonardo Rico Fernández , CEO of Solid Rain.

“Solid rain is a technology that retains water up to 400 times its weight in water, and we place it at the root, thanks to this the plant will stay hydrated for weeks without the need for water or rain, after that period it returns to its original state of granulate and rehydrates with the next irrigation or rain, reducing the frequency of irrigations. As for the fight against fire, what we do is throw the already hydrated granules at a safe distance towards the fire, creating a stream of solid water, leaving the fire to extinguish itself, and after these fires it is reforested with solid water again and around 70% and 80% of the reforested areas can be saved ”.

Download the presentation here

Irene Carrasco Abad , Sustainable Innovation strategist and general director of Diagnosis Sistémica.

« Faced with the environmental problems of forest fires in Andalusia and the Algarve, we propose a holistic proposal. » This proposal is based on acting with a medium and long-term approach, focusing on prevention, early detection and regeneration, evaluating and optimizing applications on the ground where the implementation of know-how of specific parameters is key to achieving results. reliable.

Information of interest:

 #EURegionsWeek: 

 The European Week of Regions and Cities is the largest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to cohesion policy. The event has grown into a unique communication and networking platform, bringing together regions and cities from across Europe, including their political representatives, officials, experts and academics. Over the past 17 years, you have done a lot to promote policy learning and the exchange of good practices.

https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities

 #EUGreenWeek: 

EU Green Week 2020 will be held on October 19-22, 2020 and will address

on nature and biodiversity. Following the adoption of a new EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 in May, Green Week will highlight the contribution that biodiversity can make to society and the economy, and the role it can play in supporting and stimulating recovery in the world after the pandemic, creating jobs and sustainable development. The European Green Week is an event organized by the Directorate General of the European Commission.

https://www.eugreenweek.eu/es

2nd EDITION OF THE CILIFO – FIREFIGHTING STARTUP EUROPE Accelerathon (SEUA – CILIFO) 2020 

 StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an initiative promoted by the European Commission, supported by the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament; and implemented by the Finnova Foundation in collaboration with StartUp Europe.

It is an open innovation tool to identify innovative start-ups with potential, capable of solving current challenges in the area of ​​forest fire management. The objective is to locate those that offer products, services or methodologies that address the three phases in fire fighting 1) Prevention 2) Action 3) Regeneration. They must contribute to an improvement in the efficiency of resources in action against fires; Technological tools; social awareness; fire behavior; spatial and temporal patterns of fire; fire meteorology and fire hazard classification; fire fighting techniques; ground, air and space detection; restoration; etc.

Recipients: entrepreneurs and start-ups with ideas / projects related to fighting forest fires in the 3 areas of action framed in the CILIFO project: Prevention, Action and Regeneration. More information regarding these awards will be communicated shortly.

https://startupeuropeawards.eu/

Accelerathon: 

Accelerathon is an acceleration program for innovative projects promoted by the Finnova Foundation. This methodology of the Finnova Foundation aims to find solutions and funding, through an online system of applied open innovation that brings together the innovative ecosystem in the environmental sector, in which the European Commission works within the framework of the LIFE program.

http://accelerathon.eu/

THE CILIFO PROJECT 

The project  » Iberian Center for Research and Fight Against Forest Fires  » (CILIFO) focuses on the fight against forest fires and their consequences for the adaptation and mitigation of climate change; within a framework of cross-border cooperation for the prevention of risks and the improvement of the management of the natural resources of Spain and Portugal in the Alentejo – Algarve – Andalusia Euroregion area. CILIFO is part of the Thematic Objective 5 of the POCTEP Program: Promote adaptation to climate change in all sectors; and responds to the investment priority, with respect to the POCTEP Program, 5B: Promotion of investment to address specific risks and the guarantee of adaptation to disasters and development of disaster management systems.

With a duration of three years (2019 to 2021), it seeks, through the expected results of its activities, to establish itself as a permanent Center for the promotion and development of training, awareness, development and innovation, and cooperation interregional in the fight against forest fires. CILIFO is being developed thanks to the collaboration of a public-private partnership, led by the Junta de Andalucía and made up of public research organizations, non-profit public interest entities, and public administrations; and all with the common goal of fighting forest fires.

FINNOVA FOUNDATION

FINNOVA is a European non-profit foundation, with headquarters in Belgium-Brussels, and offices and antennas in Spain (Seville, Valencia, Tenerife, Madrid and Vitoria), whose main purpose is to search for international financing related to the transfer of new technology, modernization, training, innovation for regional or local public administrations. Its main objective is to promote international and interregional cooperation through networks and events, its main fields of work being the environment, energy, climate change, innovation and improvement of the quality of life.

www.finnova.eu

CONTACT:

Beatriz Martínez Muñoz
European projects and communication officer at the Finnova Foundation
Beatriz.martinez@finnova.eu

Brussels, July 15, 2020 – The EXIT project – MicroplasTic extraction, winner of the first edition of the Accelerathon WATER Startup Europe Awards, ends its journey through this open innovation competition with the presentation of its project to the LIFE programme on Environment of the European Commission, with which you can opt to up to 2 million euros of financing per project. During the last fifteen days, the members of the project, promoted by Global Omnium and Bioferric Ink, from the Miguel Hernández University (UMH), have received the training of experts in European funds from the Finnova Foundation with the aim of refining the proposal and multiplying your chances of winning it.

‘During our history, we have managed to get 35 innovation projects to receive European funding thanks to the support of our team of experts in European funds’, says Juanma Revuelta, CEO of the Finnova Foundation and adds: ‘At Finnova we believe that it is vitally important to help to entrepreneurs who cannot receive other lines of financing but who do meet the requirements of the European Commission to start their projects. We are committed to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda to which we contribute by promoting innovation through multidisciplinary solutions to problems such as wastewater treatment.’

‘Our technology is based on the use of magnetic particles. The objective is to separate the microplastics (MPs) and reuse these particles.’ says Álvaro Mas, CEO of Bioferric, ‘Our project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using magnetic particles for the removal and recovery of PMs present in wastewater, both urban and industrial, avoiding their discharge into the environment and contributing, through their subsequent recovery, to the model of circular economy powered by the European Union (COM (2018) 28 final). The proposed technology has already been validated in a laboratory, effectively achieving the elimination of MPs greater than 99%, using real residual water for this’ says Mr Mas.

During the Accelerathon Water Startup Europe Awards, organized by IVACE, in collaboration with Seimed, Redit, Aidimme and the ADR Forum, and implemented by Finnova, which started on May 28, the twelve teams that started the competition have had access to the e-Learning platform that Finnova has developed together with Play & Go and Prisma, two Valencian startups dedicated to creating innovative tools with game elements (gamification) for the digital transformation of organizations. The gamification educational platform provides, through an interactive training system, the knowledge necessary to understand and access European funding programs.

The program has the institutional support of the DG CONNECT of the European Commission and is aimed at officials and policy makers of municipalities, companies and public corporations, business associations, technological institutes, universities, innovative companies with patents or corporations with environmental challenges that can be resolved with the financial and technological boost of the LIFE program. In addition, it follows the indications of the following United Nations SDGs with the firm purpose of supporting its visibility and objectives:

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

SDG 13: Climate Action

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

What is SEIMED?

SEIMED is the node in the Valencian Community of the network of European business service centres Entreprise Europe Network (EEN). It was launched by the European Commission and is part of the world’s largest network of services for SMEs. It is a network of European services led by IVACE for the innovation and internationalization of companies. In it, the Valencian Community Chambers of Commerce, REDIT Innovation Network, CEV, University of Alicante and CEEI Valencia participate.

About Finnovaregio

European Foundation for the financing of innovation. Its objectives are to promote private public cooperation through the technology transfer of low-cost solutions among the best technologies available to address social challenges such as employment, entrepreneurship, the United Nations SDGs, the circular economy, waste recovery, tourism sustainable, the fight against climate change.

What is Startup Europe?

Startup Europe is an initiative of the European Commission to connect high-tech startups, scaleups, investors, accelerators, corporate networks, universities and the media.

What is Startup Europe Accelerator?

It is the European accelerator created by the Finnova Foundation in 2011. This EU accelerator of incubators, incubators and vertical, regional and national entrepreneurship programs seeks that startups and scaleups access the opportunities of the EU to receive education and training, internationalize their project and access the market through European projects, obtain subsidies, network, receive legal advice and develop international marketing strategies.

What is Startup Europe Awards (SEUA)?

It is an initiative of the DG CONNECT of the European Commission implemented by the Finnova Foundation that has traditionally had the institutional support of the European Parliament, the European Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee since 2016.

SEUAs are an open innovation tool to identify disruptive startups that promote public-private collaboration and raise awareness of the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driving force for employment. In addition to generating alliances that help to fulfil the SDGs of the United Nations and the actions of the European Green Pact, thus contributing to the circular economy, the fight against climate change and sustainable tourism.

Information of interest:

Official Webpage for Accelerathon

Video for Accelerathon Ivace Water Startup Europe Awards