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INFODAY: Opening of the call for the European accelerator CirCoAX, which will scale SMEs in the fashion and textile industry that favour the circular economy in the sector

The application form will be open from Wednesday, 21st July at 17h CET.

The selected applications will receive a financial support of 12,000 EUR. 

Proposals must favour the sustainable transition of the sector, through the circular economy but also social innovation. 

Interested candidates will have until October 13th to send in their applications.

Registration link to the infodays: http://registration.nextextilgeneration.eu/

On Wednesday 21st of July at 17h CET and next Wednesday, 28th of July, the CircularInnoBooster project is holding two Infoday sessions regarding the opening of the call for proposals for interested SMEs, startups and entrepreneurs from the fashion and textile sector to apply to be part of its CirCoAX accelerator. 

The application form will be available to potential candidates from Wednesday 21st of July and the call will close the 13th October 2021.

CircularInnoBooster Fashion and Textile (F&T) is a project of the COSME programme of the European Union, with an initial duration of two years and a budget of €1,128,000.  It is 75% co-financed by the European Commission. Led by the IED (Istituto Europeo di Design), together with the Finnova Foundation, Texfor, Circulab and The Circular Project with HumanNation, it aims to transform the highly polluting fashion and textile industries through innovation, fostering entrepreneurship to generate business models based on the circular economy, turning SMEs and start-ups into sustainable and circular companies. Through the regenerative economy model, the project aims to become a benchmark for the total transformation of the industry, from raw materials to the end of life of the garments, providing a solution to the structural problems of conventional industry. 

In addition, the project has an important social perspective, favouring the creation of value-added jobs at all levels of production, contributing to the achievement of several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as the end of poverty, zero hunger and gender equality.  

To achieve these objectives, the CirCoAX accelerator has been created to provide SMEs with both financial and business support to enable them to scale their proposals. The business model of the applications must favour the circular economy, being able to focus on any of the areas of the Fashion Design and making, Textile Industry, Education & Research, Dissemination and Communities & Platforms. Likewise, applications that provide social innovation will be positively assessed.

In the presentation of the call, which will be led by Sharam Yalda, founder of HumanNation and project manager of CircularInnoBooster, the representatives of the different partners of the project will introduce the key points that candidates must meet to be selected. 

Following the submission of applications, which will close on 13 October 2021, the 30 most disruptive candidates selected will receive a €12,000 grant to scale their innovative ideas. In addition, thanks to the team of industry experts that make up the project, the beneficiaries will have access to mentoring, as well as training and workshops in which best practices to be implemented throughout the value chain will be shared. In addition, marketing knowledge and business plans will be offered to ensure the success and sustainability of the projects once the programme has ended. 

Participation in this accelerator not only helps to receive support at various levels to implement new business models in line with an ecological and circular transition of fashion and textiles, but also gives them the opportunity to set themselves up as benchmark projects on a European scale.

About COSME

COSME is the program for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (EASME) of the European Commission.

Through this program, assistance is offered to SMEs to develop their business models, access financing and internationalize. Likewise, support is offered to public administrations to improve the business environment and facilitate economic growth in the European Union. During the 2014-2020 funding period, this program allocated 2.3 billion euros to support SMEs.

About IED 

The Istituto Europeo di Design is an academic institution that operates in the fields of education, training, and research in the disciplines of design, fashion, visual communication, and management, covering professional, vocational, and business design training. IED has branches across Spain (Madrid, Barcelona), Italy (Milan, Rome, and 5 other cities), and Brazil (São Paolo, Rio de Janeiro). It operates across several EU and COSME countries through collaborations and agreements with institutions, business support organizations, professors, experts, and mentors with whom it has established relationships. IED draws on a broad network of connections in the F&T sector specifically for this project, drawing on R&D in the areas of fashion design, product design, interior design, visual arts, communications, and management.

https://iedmadrid.com/

 

About Finnova

FINNOVA is a foundation that works for the promotion and development of innovation and entrepreneurship at the EU level. With headquarters in Brussels, it operates through collaborations and partnerships across EU countries. FINNOVA expertise in leading communication and dissemination activities for EU projects is coupled with strong proven experience in setting up businesses and entrepreneurial support programmes, like accelerators, incubators and selection and award/ceremonial events.

https://web.finnovaregio.org/

 

About Texfor

TEXFOR is the reference textile association in Spain with 400 members. Founded in November 2010 and located in Catalonia, it groups companies of the whole textile value chain, from yarns to fabrics including accessories, finishing processes, printing and dying for the apparel industry, home textiles, and technical/industrial applications. Texfor has specialization and experience, having worked on important EU-level expert committees: University and Vocational Training, Financial capacity building, Cross-Sectoral collaboration, R+D+I promotion, specialized services, and sustainability leadership focused on the circular economy.

https://www.texfor.es/

 

About Circulab

CIRCULAB is a business design lab and studio specialised in developing transformation methodology, tools and programmes to help businesses develop circular and sustainable business models. CIRCULAB has designed a toolkit for implementing Circularity in businesses and operates across +23 countries (9 EU countries), supporting projects through +60 certified independent CE consultants, applying the Circ methodology and tools.

https://circulab.com/ 

 

About The Circular Project co-designed with HumanNation

TCP (The Circular Project) favours and promotes a circular and sustainable fashion in different areas, offering the fashion industry a communication strategy based on a cross-cutting and systemic approach of the circular economy. TCP combines social, ethical, environmental and economic aspects, and has a strong presence and connections in the sustainable fashion world. TCP has promoted the Circular Sustainable Fashion Week Madrid, a one-of-a-kind event, and also serves as HQ for the Spanish Association for the Sustainability, Innovation and Circularity in the Fashion Industry. TCP is also an ambassador of Sannas (Triple Bottom Line Business Association) and has collaborated in a wide array of Spanish, European and Latin American institutions and enterprises.

For this project, The Circular Project works with HumanNation for the co-design and development of the project. HumanNation is a consulting firm specialised in the development of transformative and disruptive ecosystems of innovation and business: the ‘New Economy’. Based on the Fourth Economic Sector, systemic thinking and co-creation, it promotes awareness within organizations and ecosystems to respect planetary boundaries and social fabric, creating resilient economies at the local level, with a global perspective.

https://thecircularproject.com/

https://humannation.earth

 

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News

Fourth session of Next LATAM-EU Generation addresses business cooperation between the EU and Latin America in the water management sector

The webinar was held on July 13 to commemorate World Population Day and World Oceans Day

Circular economy and wastewater management project LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 was the overarching topic throughout the webinar

The event was supported by Red Business Market and the Congreso Iberoamericano de Empresas Familiares y Pymes

A meeting will be held in Medellin (Colombia) in late 2021 to deliver the LATAM Startup Europe Awards

Brussels, 14.07.2021 – On Tuesday 13 July, 2021, on the occasion of World Population Day and World Oceans Day, Finnova Foundation and Startup Europe Awards launched  the fourth session of Next LATAM-EU Generation: “Entrepreneurship and Water: a Driver of Economic Recovery and Social Development of Regions and Municipalities” together with Red Business Market and the Congreso Iberoamericano de Empresas Familiares y Pymes.

The main objectives of Next LATAM-EU Generation are the transfer of knowledge, the dissemination of information on available funding facilities for both continents and the development of shared projects among Latin American and European countries in order to forge business alliances.

The fourth session of Next LATAM-EU Generation: “Entrepreneurship and Water: a Driver of Economic Recovery and Social Development of regions and Municipalities” was chaired by Finnova – LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 CEO Juanma Revuelta, who used LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0. to showcase best practices in the wastewater sector. Partnered by Finnova, LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 aims to control on-demand production of biogas in WWTPs digesters. This project seeks to treat organic waste from livestock farms e.g. swine or chicken manure, waste from the HORECA sector, waste from cooperatives and supermarkets, and solid urban waste in order to foster sustainability and to reduce CO2 emissions.

Javier Vázquez Hueso, CEO of EMALGESA and Deputy Mayor of Ayuntamiento de Algeciras, which harbours the fourth most important port in Europe and is located between two continents, was the first speaker in the “Institutions” section of the webinar. Mr. Vázquez said that Algeciras will invest €25M in the upcoming years on its water agenda.

Rafael Heredero, Policy Advisor at EurEau, broke down into different sub-topics the European Green Deal, the EU’s strategy to become a resource efficient, competitive and modern economy, which urges to minimise GHG emissions by 2050.

Luis Lehmann, Circular Economy and Sustainable Development Consultant, initiated the “Water and Region Experts” section by pointing out the major problems which affect water in this decade i.e. water pollution, poor quality of water for human consumption and floods. All of these are particularly dangerous for Latin America. “Facing these challenges by implementing a circular economy model to reach sustainable development is a great opportunity, especially for local governments”.

The CEO of Red Business Market, Josu Gómez Barrutia, said that over the past years, “there has been a growing interest in the sustainability and circular economy start-up ecosystem”. According to Mr. Barrutia, the amount of environment-related start-ups in Spain has soared to more than 36%, which has led to a 361% surge in renewable energies and sustainability related patents. This clearly shows the concern of start-ups vis-à-vis the environment.

Ana Beccar Varela, Water Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy, introduced a long-term water funds management strategy. Waters funds are organisations which design and promote financial and governmental mechanisms bringing together public, private and civil society agents to achieve water security based on the comprehensive management of watersheds and the implementation of nature-based solutions.

Diego Correa, CEO of APSU, talked about a microwave reactor APSU is currently using and which extracts biochar from sludge. This project was accelerated by Finnova’s Startup Europe Accelerator and won the Startup Europe Awards competition in the water category in 2017. This sludge represents “one of the greatest dangers to water”. Mr. Correa said this reactor “transforms this sludge into clean energy, eliminates pathogens and extracts biogas with steam in a single process”.

Speaking from Águas de Gaia in Portugal, CEO Miguel Lemos stressed the urgency to take care and to protect water. “Water is necessary for human life. We need to find a social, financial and environmental balance when it comes to water management”.

Sub-director of Agri-food Innovation at Cajamar Ricardo García talked about Almeria’s “agricultural miracle” i.e. its strategic water management system. Mr. García and his team strive to recruit new talent in the agri-food industry of Almeria to copycat this very same system in the rest of Spain and the world.

José Teixeira, Key Account Manager of Buntplanet, discussed how his company has created a unique software based on AI to optimise water management and to prevent leaks by digitalising it.

Adrián Nadal, CEO of Bioferric, talked about Bioferric’s technology to design and assemble water treatment and purification plants. Bioferric won the first edition of Water Accelerathon, an event implemented by Finnova. Thanks to their technology, Bioferric can recover up to 95% of components from effluents.

The last speaker in the “Experts” section was Carlota Corzo, Co-founder of Lazzaro, a technology-based and socially-oriented enterprise specialising in designing software for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to manage their websites and to raise funds and donations, hence filling the digital divide. “One of our goals is to monitor transactions by using blockchain, as the first reason why people avoid donating to NGOs in Spain is the lack of confidence. We realised only 8% of NGOs are digitalised”.

Adrián Noheda, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Director at Finnova Foundation, wrapped up the “Funds” area by explaining the different EU funding opportunities for all those entrepreneurs wishing to bring their projects into the EU and who participate in companies operating in Member States.

Horizon Europe, the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for 2021-2027, has been recently launched. It envisages international cooperation with non-Member States.

The LIFE Programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action created in 1992. For the 2021-2027 period, the programme has a financial envelope of €5.4 billion, which means €1.9 billion more as opposed to the 2014-2020 period. LIFE can be broken down into four sub-programmes whit a co-funding rate of up to 60%: Nature and Biodiversity, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Circular Economy and Quality of Life and Clean Energy Transition.

Mr. Noheda seized the opportunity to use LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 as a best practice example. This project is a consortium formed by Global Omnium, Finnova Foundation and Aguas do Centro Litoral.

Mr. Noheda also talked about the Innovation Fund, one of the most comprehensive funds in the world for the development of low-carbon innovative technologies. This fund will provide nearly €20 billion for 2020-2030 to commercialise industrial solutions to decarbonise Europe and to help achieve a climate-neutrality transition.

On the other hand, the European Innovation Council (EIC) offers up to €15M-worth investments and up to €2.5M-worth grants for entrepreneurs and SMEs having from 1 to 250 employees and less than €50M revenue.

The fourth session of Next LATAM-EU Generation was closed off by poet and president of Poets without Borders Chema Paz Gago, who read his ecopoem called “False Prestige”.

If you couldn’t attend the event, you can watch it here.

PREVIOUS SESSIONS

The first LATAM-EU session was held on March 8 on the occasion of International Women’s Day. It was run by several female speakers, such as Patricia Llombart, EU Ambassador in Colombia, Liskel Álvarez, External Actions Senior Officer at Cabildo de Tenerife, and Adriana Vargas, head of Trading Links of the Colombian Mission in the EU. The goal of this event was to discuss the role of women in business cooperation between Latam and the EU, with a special focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

The second session, which was held on April 6 (on the occasion of World Health Day), was named “Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism through Cooperation between Latam and the EU during Covid-19”. Its main topics were the challenges that the tourism sector has to face and how to. This session was attended by Manuel Vegas, president of Asociación Española de Directores de Hotel (AEDH); Antonio López de Ávila, Co-founder and CEO of Toursim Data Driven Solutions (TDDS), and Irene Sánchez, Business Creation Manager at EIT Health Spain.

The third session, which was held on May 11 on Global Recycling Day, was named “Challenges of Circular Economy in LATAM-EU Cooperation as a Production and Consumption Model for Sustainability”. Speakers included Isabel Silva Souza, Ambassador of the European Commission’s Climate Pact; Álvaro Hernández, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inboplast; Sharam Yalda, partner of CirCoAX and founder of HumanNation; Alonso Salguero, CEO at GTA Ingeniería y Medioambiente, and Giuseppe Liberati, Executive Director at Bridging Value.

Next LATAM-EU Generation is made up of nine online events which will take place every second Tuesday of each month. Each event is held on the occasion of an International Day in line with UN SDGs. To top it all off, if the health situation allows it, an on-site event will be held in Medellin (Colombia) to celebrate the final of LATAM Startup Europe Awards.

About LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0

The main objective of the LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 project is the real-scale demonstration of an innovative technology for the automated control of waste dosage in anaerobic digesters of WWTPs to maximise the production of biogas on demand as a renewable energy.

LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 undertakes to turn biogas into a reliable source of energy to supply green power to industries and companies in order to ensure that the EU’s goal to reach at least 27% of renewable energy in 2030 is met. This methodology is especially interesting for Europe, as there are 18.000 water treatment plants accounting for 0.8% of energy consumption.

LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 kicked off on 1 September, 2020, and will continue up until 29 February, 2024. Its main coordinator is Global Omnium Medioambiente, and its main partners are Finnova Foundation and Portuguese consortium Águas do Centro Litoral. It has a €970,000 budget.

https://www.lifecodigestion.com/

About Finnova Foundation

Finnova Foundation is a Belgian-Spanish foundation which helps institutions and organisations to get funds for their innovative projects. Finnova aims to promote private-public cooperation through innovation in order to address social challenges, e.g. employment, training, entrepreneurship, SDGs, circular economy, etc. As part of its commitment to innovation, Finnova has been organising the Startup Europe Awards since 2016, an initiative from the European Commission.

Finnova’s HQ are located in Belgium and across Spain – Comunitat Valenciana, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Madrid and the Canary Islands. It also has branches in Chile and Panama.

For more info, click on www.finnova.eu

About Startup Europe Awards

Startup Europe Awards is an initiative by DG CONNECT and has been implemented by Finnova Foundation since 2016. Startup Europe Awards are an open innovation mechanism aimed to identify disruptive start-ups and to promote private-public partnerships. They also seek 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, they also contribute to circular economy, sustainable tourism and fighting against climate change.

For more info, click on https://startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

About Red Business Market 

Business Market is a forum connecting investors, businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups from Ciudad Real aiming to create a network of business, financing and support for economic and business projects in that area. All this funding can be coupled with venture capital, business angels, personal investments and corporate or financial funds for innovative and disruptive initiatives with an added value which need funding to start operating.

For more info, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-vd9gSy19s

カテゴリー
Events News

Ivace supports the cultural and creative industries sector with a new European initiative aimed at rendering them more resilient and competitive

Ivace supports competitiveness, innovation and sustainability in the cultural and creative industries sector by carrying out multi-sector and collaborative actions under different EU programmes

The goal is to find out innovative solutions to the challenges faced by this sector as well as to get EU funding

València (6.7.21) – The Instituto Valenciano de Competitividad Empresarial (Ivace) has just launched a challenge to the cultural and creative industries sector (CCIs) aimed at identifying innovative solutions eligible for EU funding under Horizon Europe, Creative Europe, LIFE, Green Deal or Next Generation EU.

This challenge will take form in an open innovation European programme led by Ivace. According to Júlia Company, General Director at Ivace, “our goal is to support those artists, creators, professionals and organisations that have an innovative project to cooperate and to jointly create products with local and European actors by offering them instruments to become more resilient and competitive”.

On July 15, Ivace will deliver an online presentation on this European programme. “We hope many businesses, professionals and stakeholders from the CCIs sector will join us. We want to find innovative solutions to meet the challenges the CCIs are currently facing”, said Company.

Participants in this programme (http://inscripcion.accelerathon.eu/) will benefit from the Startup Europe Awards methodology by DG CONNECT in order to find out innovative projects in the cultural sector. Startup Europe Awards is being implemented by Finnova Foundation and is backed by SEIMED (European Services supporting Businesses and Innovation), REDIT, Las Naves, el Foro de Agencias de Desarrollo Regional (ADR) (Spanish Association of Development Agencies), EURADA (the European Association of Development Agencies) and Startup Europe Accelerator.

Startup Europe Awards aims to look for disruptive start-ups promoting private-public cooperation, to raise awareness on the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driving force for job creation and to foster partnership relations to meet the UN SDGs and to carry out the European Green Deal actions to address the circular economy, climate change and sustainable tourism.

Challenges faced by the CCIs

The CCIs are a major source of sustainable growth and job creation across Europe. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn has deeply affected them. As a result of restrictions, many jobs have been lost and the economic activity has been paused.

According to the Reconstruyendo Europa: la economía cultural y creativa antes y después de la COVID-19 report (In English, Rebuilding Europe: The cultural and creative economy before and after the COVID-19 crisis), SMEs account for 90% of all CCI companies. Furthermore, this sector was one of the major sources of job creation in Europe in 2019 (7.6 million jobs created in different areas e.g. architecture, multimedia, advertising, publishing and press, music, the performing and visual arts, radio and videogames). This sector is responsible for creating 8.4 times more jobs than the telecommunications industry.

The CCIs are one of the most diverse and promising sectors, and they are also one of the key contributors to the EU’s GDP, as the turnover generated in this sector in 2019 accounted for 4.4% of the EU’s GDP (€643 billion). Nevertheless, due to the pandemic, in 2020, the cultural and creative economy lost approximately 31% of its revenues.

Register here to attend the webinar on July 15 at 4pm and find out more about this challenge: http://inscripcion.accelerathon.eu/

カテゴリー
Events News

Fourth session of LATAM-UE Generation: “Entrepreneurship and Water: a Driver of Economic Recovery and Social Development of Regions and Municipalities”

The goal of LATAM-UE Generation is to promote business cooperation among EU and Latam countries

This fourth session is supported by Red Business Market and Congreso Iberoamericano de Empresas Familiares y Pymes

It will be held on July 13 on World Population Day and World Oceans Day

A meeting will be held in Medellin (Colombia) to celebrate the LATAM Startup Europe Awards in late 2021

Brussels, 22.06.2021 – On July 13, 2021, on the occasion of World Population Day and World Oceans Day, Finnova Foundation and Startup Europe Awards will hold the fourth session of Next LATAM-EU Generation: “Entrepreneurship and Water: a Driver of Economic Recovery and Social Development of Regions and Municipalities” together with Red Business Market and the Congreso Iberoamericano de Empresas Familiaries y Pymes.

Next LATAM-EU Generation seeks to exchange knowledge, to discuss available financial instruments for both continents and to launch common projects among different countries from Latin America and Europe aiming to create new business alliances. Each of the LATAM-EU sessions focuses on a World Day as part of its commitment to the UN SDGs.

The event on July 13 will be chaired by Juanma Revuelta, founder of Tourism Startup Europe Awards and CEO at Finnova, which has had more than 30 LIFE projects approved. According to Revuelta, “there are some €150,000M that can be redefined up until late 2023 and can be used up until 2030”.

The LIFE programme, established by the European Commission, will open for applications on late June until October 2021. It will have a financial envelope of €5,300M for projects addressing environmental issues.

The fourth session of Next LATAM-EU Generation, “Entrepreneurship and Water: a Driver of Economic Recovery and Social Development of Regions and Municipalities”, will feature Rafael Heredero, Policy Advisor at EurEau secretariat in Brussels; Javier Vázquez Hueso, CEO at EMALGESA and deputy mayor at Ayuntamiento de Algeciras; Luis Lehmann, international expert on circular economy; Juan Carlos Gázquez, Director at Cajamar Innova – Incubadora de Empresas de Alta Tecnología en Agua en Fundación  Cajamar, and Adrián Nadal, CEO at Bioferric Ink, among many other participants.

Next LATAM-EU Generation was first launched after the success of the Congreso Iberoamericano de Empresas Familiares y Pymes, run by Red Business Market, and which was held on January 2021. It hosted 558 businesses, more than 60 domestic and international speakers and nearly 9,000 attendees (companies). This event showed that transatlantic collaboration is needed in order to face shared challenges in both continents, such as digitalization, sustainability and circularity after Covid-19.

Josu Gómez Barrutia, CEO at Red Business Market, claims that “there is no doubt whatsoever these events, which serve as a meeting point for developing strategic connections in entrepreneurship and business development and cooperation between the EU and Latin America are crucial in such a time of deep changes, challenges and transformations in economies, societies and geopolitics.

Haven’t registered yet? You can do it for free here.

PREVIOUS SESSIONS

The first LATAM-EU session was held on March 8 on the occasion of International Women’s Day. It was run by several female speakers, such as Patricia Llombart, EU Ambassador in Colombia, Liskel Álvarez, External Actions Senior Officer at Cabildo de Tenerife, and Adriana Vargas, head of Trading Links of the Colombian Mission in the EU. The goal of this event was to discuss the role of women in business cooperation between Latam and the EU, with a special focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

The second session, which was held on April 6 (on the occasion of World Health Day), was named “Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism through Cooperation between Latam and the EU during Covid-19”. Its main topics were challenges that the tourism sector has to face and how to. This session was attended by Manuel Vegas, president of Asociación Española de Directores de Hotel (AEDH); Antonio López de Ávila, Co-founder and CEO of Toursim Data Driven Solutions (TDDS), and Irene Sánchez, Business Creation Manager at EIT Health Spain.

The third session, which was held on May 11 on Global Recycling Day, was named “Challenges of Circular Economy in LATAM-EU Cooperation as a Production and Consumption Model for Sustainability”. Speakers included Isabel Silva Souza, Ambassador of the European Commission’s Climate Pact; Álvaro Hernández, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inboplast; Sharam Yalda, partner of CirCoAX and founder of HumanNation; Alonso Salguero, CEO at GTA Ingeniería y Medioambiente, and Giuseppe Liberati, Executive Director at Bridging Value.

Next LATAM-EU Generation is made up of nine online events which will take place every second Tuesday of each month. Each event is held on the occasion of an International Day in line with UN SDGs. To top it all off, if the health situation allows it, an on-site event will be held in Medellin (Colombia) to celebrate the final of LATAM Startup Europe Awards.

About Finnova Foundation

Finnova Foundation is a Belgian-Spanish foundation which helps institutions and organisations getting funds for innovative projects. Its objective is 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 organizing the Startup Europe Awards, a joint initiative by Finnova and the European Commission to reward the best European start-ups.

For more info, click on https://web.finnovaregio.org/

About Startup Europe Awards

Startup Europe Awards is an initiative by DG CONNECT and has been implemented by Finnova Foundation since 2016. Startup Europe Awards are an innovative mechanism aimed at identifying disruptive startups promoting private-public partnership. They also seek 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, they also contribute to circular economy, sustainable tourism and fighting against climate change.

For more info, click on https://startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

About Red Business Market 

Business Market is a forum connecting investors, businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups from Ciudad Real aiming to create a network of business, financing and support for economic and business projects in that area. All this funding can be coupled with venture capital, business angels, personal investments and corporate or financial funds for innovative and disruptive initiatives with an added value which need funding to start operating.

For more info, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-vd9gSy19s

カテゴリー
Juventud News

Waste management project LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 was main topic on circular economy and green energies webinar during “EUGreenWeek”

This LIFE Project seeks to boost the production of biogas and to increase energetic self-sufficiency in wastewater-treatment plants

The new 2021-2027 LIFE programme was presented to participants. It will have a financial envelope of €5.4 billion

 The goal of this event was to share experiences and form alliances pursuing a more sustainable and affordable waste management digestion

Brussels, 04.05.2021- On June 4, water service provider Global Omnium and Finnova Foundation held an online event called “Challenge of circular economy in WWTP for green energy production” within the European Green Week 2021 #EUGreenWeek This event, which is part of the broader LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 project, addresses two out of seventeen UN SDGs, i.e. SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy). Over 100 participants from Latin America, Spain and other European countries attended the event.

The European Green Week 2021 #EUGreenWeek, which was organised by the European Commission Directorate General for Environment, will take place from 31 May to 4 June, 2021, and will focus on the theme “Zero Pollution”. This annual event will be coupled with online events in all EU member states and will address EU environment policies.

This webinar provided the latest news on the promotion of the circular economy in wastewater treatment processes by sharing best practices and examples of waste reuse such as the ongoing LIFE projects Ecodigestion 2.0, Nieblas and Landfill Biofuel.

This workshop was attended by several international and national experts who shed some light on how to turn waste management into a more sustainable and efficient practice. Finnova CEO Juanma Revuelta chaired the event. Finnova had also previously taken part in the Water Start Up Europe Awards together with the Valencian government as part of its commitment towards reaching water circularity. Revuelta encouraged speakers, companies and governments to seek LIFE funding. LIFE is the only EU financial instrument dedicated to the environment. The upcoming call for pilot projects will start on mid-June and will have a financial envelope of up to €5.4 billion.

Revuelta also presented the LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 project. This initiative includes an automated control system to manage organic waste in anaerobic digesters in WWTPs in order to maximize the production of biogas on demand as a renewable source of energy. For example, this system allows transforming organic waste from the HORECA sector (such as leftovers) into biogas in each water treatment plant, which then can be used to fuel vehicles.

LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 (€970,000) undertakes to turn biogas into a reliable source of energy to supply green power to industries and companies in order to ensure that the EU’s goal to reach at least 27% of renewable energy in 2030 is met. This methodology is of especial interest for Europe, as there are 18.000 water treatment plants accounting for 0.8% of energy consumption.

Based on these facts and figures, LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 kicked off on 1 September, 2020, and will continue up until 29 February, 2024. Its main coordinator is Global Omnium Medioambiente, and its main partners are Finnova Foundation and Portuguese consortium Águas do Centro Litoral.

The conference was inaugurated by Jaime Castillo, Institutional Relations Officer at Global Omnium. He encouraged participants and attendees to take the risk and “to get out of the comfort zone” in order to reduce waste production and transform it into energy. “The Earth is not a landfill”.

The wastewater treatment plant in Quart de Benáger, Comunidad Valenciana, took part in both LIFE Ecodigestion and LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0. Paul Granell, director at the plant, said that thanks to these projects, the plant now generates electric energy from biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion process. In turn, this promotes the use of renewable energies and reduces GHG emissions.

Joana Vieria, Wastewater Operations Coordinator at Águas do Centro Litoral, provided an example of good practice in wastewater treatment in Portugal. In Coimbrão, Leiria, her team is currently using software to implement new actions. “We are all now living a period of innovation, therefore we are exploring new projects to optimize circular water reuse”.

Adrián Noheda, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director at Fundación Finnova, presented the European innovation Council (EIC) programme, which funds up to €15 million in investment and €2.5 million in grants to entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Noheda also fleshed out Revuelta’s initial comments on LIFE grants by adding that, for the first time, there will be two new “subprogrammes” for projects dealing with circular economy and quality of life and transition toward clean energies.

Speaking from the Canary Islands, Saúl Oliva Cabreras, environment project Coordinator at GESPLAN, presented LIFE Nieblas. The objective of this initiative is to minimise the impact of climate change in southern Europe and overseas EU territories as well as demonstrate the capacity of reforestation methodologies to curb carbon footprint. This project is testing fog collectors and new reforestation methods which capture water from fog.

On the other hand, Jaime Ezquerra, R&D project manager in FCC Medio Ambiente, presented LIFE Landfill Biofuel. This Project aims to capture and enrich landfill biogas to produce a biomethane suitable for vehicle use. Thus obtaining a renewable, abundant and self-sufficient energy source”.

International Relations Coordinator at Asociación Española de Abastecimientos de Agua y Saneamiento (AEAS), Gari Villa-Landa, pointed out several challenges that prevent water from being an active component in circular economy. “Is water in circular economy a paradigm or a paradox? It does not matter what we want it to be, as it all boils down to political will”.

Finally, Operations Director at Water Europe, Andrea Rubini, stressed the importance of coordinating all actors in the water chain in order to achieve a real circular economy in this sector. “Although water is a global challenge, it is nonetheless a local issue”.

Green transition is a key topic under Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which is funded thanks to the EU recovery funds Next Generation EU. This plan will allocate over €3.1 billion to improving and integrating renewable energies; some €1.3 billion to electric infrastructures, intelligent networks and flexibility and stocking facilities; and some €1.5 billion to renewable hydrogen and its sectorial integration.

Couldn’t attend the webinar? Don’t worry, click here to watch it.

About Fundación Finnova

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 and the circular economy. As a staunch defender of innovation, Finnova has been organising the Startup Europe Awards since 2016. This is an initiative launched by the European Comission’s DG Connect.

Finnova’s HQs are located both in Belgium and across Spain – in the Valencian Community, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Madrid and the Canary Islands. It also has branches in Chile and Panama.

www.finnova.eu

About LIFE

LIFE programme is the EU fund dedicated to environmental objectives for the 2014-2020 period. Its main objective is to act as a catalyst for changes in the development and application of policies through solutions and improvements to reach the climate and environment goals. It also promotes innovative technologies in the climate change and environment fields.

The two main sub-programmes are LIFE Climate Action and LIFE Environment.

 https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/life

About Global Omnium

The company that gave rise to Global Omnium, Aguas de Valencia, was founded in 1890. Global Omnium specializes in water treatment. It provides its services to 5.5 million people in more than 300 Spanish cities, but it also operates in three other continents. Global Omnium is based on a social commitment, and it is made up of centenary companies that have been contributing to the growth of the cities and municipalities in which they work for more than a century. https://www.globalomnium.com/Grupo/Inicio/

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FYCMA and Finnova launch the webinar “Greencities 4 Fighting Against Climate Change” to address the green transformation of cities by improving municipal public services

The online event will take place on Thursday 13th May from 16h00 to 17h30 (CEST).

The event will promote the generation of business, opportunities and alliances for a greener approach to the cities of the future.

This webinar is the prelude to the Greencities Forum, which will be held in Malaga on 29th and 30th September 2021.

Brussels, 05.05.2021 – On Thursday 13th May 2021, the Trade Fair and Convention Centre of Malaga (FYCMA), with the support of Finnova Foundation, organises in the framework of the European Green Week 2021 #EUGreenWeek the webinar “Greencities 4 Fighting Against Climate Change” on the occasion of the International Day of Light, thus aligning itself with one of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), specifically with SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities.

The main objectives of this meeting are to present the latest developments in the development of smart, sustainable and efficient territories, to provide a space to generate business, to establish alliances promoting innovative ecosystems for the promotion of new industries and to boost disruptive changes in areas such as circular economy electronic administration , tourism and smart transport, among other measures to prevent or treat the consequences of environmental pollution in cities.

Migration from rural areas to urban centres in recent decades has led to 55% of the world’s population being located in cities, a trend that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. This percentage, combined with global population growth, could add some 2.5 billion people to urban areas in just 30 years.

The high concentration of population in cities has led to a greater impact of climate change in cities, which are responsible for 70% of global CO2 emissions (around 25 gigatonnes). Cities are therefore the main threat to the climate, but they can also be an important part of the solution to the problem through their citizens and city councils, who have to take the lead in urban climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.

With these challenges on the table, this webinar will count with the participation of different experts, among them Julio Andrade, Director of the National Centre for the Training of Leading Authorities – CIFAL Malaga UNITAR; Katerina Fortun, Political Analyst – Adaptation to Climate Change at the European Commission; Regina Monsalve, President of the College of Agricultural Technical Engineers and Graduates of Valencia and Castellón – COITAVC; and Eugenio Martí, CEO of Graphene Solutions.

This webinar aims to claim a management model based on green local development supported by sustainable and inclusive aspects and will exchange views on the redesign of the municipalities of the future from the improvement of local public services, therefore, the areas of discussion will range from governance to citizen participation through energy, mobility, building and technological solutions to implement these changes.

“Greencities 4 Fighting Against Climate Change” serves as an online precedent for the urban intelligence and sustainability forum Greencities, an event that will take place at the Trade Fair and Convention Centre of Malaga on 29th and 30th September 2021 with all the necessary anti-COVID security measures.

Haven’t you registered yet? You can do it here.

About Finnova Foundation

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 Europe Awards, 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

About FYCMA

FYCMA (Trade Fair and Convention Centre of Malaga) has established itself as one of the most active trade fair organisers in Southern Europe, specialising in the conceptualisation and development of professional events linked to the field of innovation, digital transformation and knowledge generation. These forums, highly specialised and with an international vocation, share the common goal of attracting talent and investment, while seeking convergence between the capabilities of the Spanish productive and research fabric and providing physical and virtual spaces for generating business, launching disruptive projects, new opportunities and establishing alliances. The venue contributes with them to the positioning of Malaga and Andalusia among the key prescribers of advanced sectors, as well as strengthening the Spain brand in an increasingly digital and connected world.

For more information: www.fycma.com

About Greencities y S-MOVING

Greencities, Intelligence and Urban Sustainability and S-MOVING, Movilidad Inteligente y Sostenible, Intelligent and Sustainable Mobility, will hold their next editions on 29th and 30th September in person at FYCMA (Trade Fair and Congress Centre of Malaga) converging in a single business and knowledge space, and also providing a comprehensive view of the challenges of the territories and their management through a global concept of sustainability. Thus, positioned as the main national platform on tools, solutions and ideas for the development of smart, sustainable and connected territories, they will address in depth topics such as technology and connectivity as tools against depopulation -smart rural-, the opportunities of smart tourist destinations, collective transport as the axis for sustainable mobility, 5G and connected and autonomous mobility, or the potential of green hydrogen, among others.

For more information: www.greencitiesmalaga.com y www.smovingforum.com

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.

For more information: www.startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

About Startup Europe Accelerathon

Startup Europe Accelerathon aims to identify innovative ideas that can be funded by the European Union, such as the LIFE programme, Green Deal, Horizon 2020 or NextGenerationEU. Startup Europe Accelerathon follows the indications of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, contributing from each challenge to the proposed SDGs; in the framework of the Startup Europe Awards methodology of the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, which was born from the DG Research and Development in 2020 with the pan-European campaign Hackthevirus. It has been successfully carried out with governments such as that of the Valencian Community with the challenge of industrial polluting waters or the Andalusian Regional Government with the challenge of the fight against climate change, forest management and innovation in the prevention, fight against fires and regeneration of burnt areas.

For more information: www.accelerathon.eu

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Third webinar of the LATAM-EU Generation series: Challenges of circular economy in LATAM-EU cooperation as a production and consumption model for sustainability

The aim of this series is to promote business cooperation between Latin-American and European Union countries

 The Red Business Market and the Ibero-American Congress on Family Business and SMEs collaborate in this event

 A meeting will be organised in Medellin (Colombia) at the end of 2021 to celebrate the LATAM Startup Europe Awards

 The workshop will be held on 11th of May on the occasion of Global Recycling Day

Brussels, 03.05.2021 – Next Tuesday, May 11th 2021, on the occasion of Global Recycling Day, Finnova Foundation and Startup Europe Awards are launching the third event of the Next LATAM-EU Generation series: Challenges of the circular economy in LATAM-EU cooperation as a model of production and consumption for sustainability, with the collaboration of Red Business Market and the Ibero-American Congress on Family Business and SMEs.

The main objectives are the transfer of knowledge, to raise awareness of the funding mechanisms available between the two continents and the development of common projects between different countries in Latin America and Europe in order to create business alliances on both sides of the Atlantic, focusing each even on the celebration of a world day in line with the United Nations SDG.

The third event of the Next LATAM-EU Generation cycle, entitled “Challenges of the circular economy in LATAM-EU cooperation as a model of production and consumption for sustainability”, will be held on 11 May from 16h30 to 18h00 (CEST). It will be attended by Guillermo González, head of the Circular Economy Office of the Chilean Ministry of Environment, Silvio Ruiz manager of the Colombian Association of Recyclers – GAIAREC, Álvaro Hernández, president of the Board of Directors of Inboplast, Sharam Yalda, partner of CirCoAX and founder of HumanNation Giuseppe Libertati, global leader, author, energy disruptor and smart data investor and Alonso Salguero, CEO of GTA Ingeniería y Madioambiente, among many other speakers. Haven’t you registered yet? Do it for free here.

During the first event, which was celebrated last 8th of March coinciding with International Women’s Day, the vision of women in LATAM-EU business cooperation was discussed, within the framework of innovation and entrepreneurship. The workshop was divided into three blocks: institutional, in which several women members of international institutions participated; entrepreneurship, which was attended by 8 influential women entrepreneurs; and European projects, which focused on the importance of funding mechanisms when it comes to entrepreneurship.

The first workshop was entitled ‘Women’s vision in LATAM-EU family business cooperation, in the framework of innovation and entrepreneurship’. Some of the women who participated were Patricial Lombart, European Union ambassador to the Republic of Colombia, Liskel Álvarez, Delegate Councillor for External Action of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Adriana Vargas, Head of the Trade Section of the Colombian Mission to the European Union, Ruth de los Reyes Cánovas, CEO of Microbiotech SL, a company accelerated by the CEI Túria, and Martha Lagunes, Head of Strategic Planning at Startup Europe Awards Mexico, among many others. If you missed the first webinar, you can watch it here.

La segunda jornada, que tuvo lugar el pasado 6 de abril, titulada “Retos y oportunidades para el turismo a través de la cooperación LATAM-UE en el contexto de la crisis sanitaria COVID-19” y que se celebró con motivo del Día Mundial de la Salud, versó sobre los retos a los que se enfrenta actualmente el sector turístico y sobre cómo poder frente a éstos partiendo de la siguiente premisa “el turismo es un sector tractor de generación de empleo”, tal y como declaraba Juanma Revuelta, CEO de la Fundación Finnova.

It was divided into three blocks: the first, entitled “Challenges and opportunities for tourism“, the second, “Health and tourism in the context of COVID-19“, and the third and last before de round of questions, “New developments and opportunities”. This event was attended by speakers such as Manuel Vegas, President of the Association of Hotel Managers (AEDH); Antonio López de Ávila, Co-founder and CEO of Tourism Data Driven Solutions (TDDS); Irene Sánchez, Business Creation Manager at the health area of EIT Health Spain; José García Padernilla, Manager at Ditecpesa (Ferrovial) and leader of the CD CLEAN COVID-19 New desinfection formulation and Víctor Badorrey, Director of Institutional Relations at SEGITTUR.

Couldn’t you attend the event? You can watch it here.

Next LATAM-EU Generation was born after the success of the Ibero-American Congress on Family Businesses and SMEs, organised by Red Business Market, which took place last January. With the participation of 558 companies, more than 60 national and international speakers and almost 9000 companies attending, the congress reflected the need for transatlantic collaboration to face common challenges in the two continents, such as digitalisation, sustainability and circularity after COVID-19.

Josu Gómez Barrutia, CEO of Red Business Market, states that “certainly, in a time of profound changes, challenges and transformations in the socio-economic and geopolitical sphere, the commitment to meeting spaces, alliances and strategic connections in the fields of entrepreneurship, business development and cooperation between the European Union and Latin America are fundamental”.

The Next LATAM-EU Generation series is divided into nine online events that will take place on the second Monday of each month referring to an international day celebrated during the same month. In these training spaces, different support tools, challenges and opportunities will be presented to promote entrepreneurship and innovation through business and public-private collaboration, with an emphasis on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Agenda 2030, prioritising one or the other depending on the region.

As culmination, at the end of this year, if the health situation allows it, an in-person meeting will be held in Medellin (Colombia) where the final of the LATAM Startup Europe Awards will be held. Startup Europe Awards (SEUA) is a methodology of European Commission DG-CONNECT implemented by Finnova Foundation since 2016, whose main mission is to help StartUps and ScaleUps to be more efficient, intelligent and successful, to promote innovation and the exchange of experiences and to influence the Scaleups process, all from a sustainable approach.

About Finnova Foundation

The European foundation for innovation funding. 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. www.finnova.eu

About Startup Europe Awards

It is a methodology of the European Commission 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. https://startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

About Red Business Market 

Business Market is a connection forum between investors, companies, entrepreneurs and startups in Ciudad Real whose objectives are the generation of a business network, financing and support for the development of economic and business projects in the territory. All this, hand in hand with the possibility of being able to have a direct relationship with venture capital funds, business angels, family investment assets and corporate or financial funds addressed to innovative, disruptive and value-added initiatives that need an economic boost to its development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-vd9gSy19s

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Awards ceremony: Europe Accelerathon Euroregion Alentejo-Algarve-Andalucía for Covid-19 challenges and climate change

An open innovation programme to promote innovative technologies in the Alentejo-Algarve-Andalusia Euroregion.

The final webinar, organized by Finnova, will take place next Thursday, May 6, 2021.

A presentation webinar was in support of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, as indicated in its priorities:  “It is time to act: for a fair, ecological and digital recovery”.

Initiative co-financed by the Ministry of the Presidency, Public and Interior Administration of the Junta de Andalucía.

Seville, 28.04.2021 – The “Accelerathon Spain-Portugal: innovation and cooperation against Covid-19 and climate change” seeks to address the challenges facing the Alentejo-Algarve-Andalucía Euroregion (Euroregion AAA) on issues related to Covid-19 and climate change. Next Thursday, 06 May 2021 at 17:00 Brussels time, the final ceremony of this open innovation programme (www.accelerathon.eu) will be held to boost innovation in the Alentejo-Algarve-Andalusia Euroregion in the fight against Coronavirus and climate change. This initiative is co-financed by the Ministry of the Presidency, Public and Interior Administration of the Junta de Andalucía.

During the event, in webinar format, the name of the three finalists of the Accelerathon Spain-Portugal will be announced. The jury has evaluated a total of 15 initiatives presented, of which the 5 with the highest score will be disseminated through the Finnova communication channels and the Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO. The jury will choose the best proposal, which will receive advice and be mentored for a possible presentation of their project to a European call. The remaining four initiatives will benefit from the financial aid information service provided by Finnova, the finalists will participate in the final webinar in which they will make a pitch of 5 minutes.

  • The first finalist proposal will be mentored and advised by Finnova for the search for European financial opportunities of interest.
  • Proposals remaining in second and third positions will receive partial mentoring, benefiting from a financial aid information service provided by Finnova.
  • The top five proposals will be always disseminated – respecting the protection of business secrecy – to help its dissemination and increase the chances that entities interested in investing in them will know them.

The final webinar envisages the participation of the entities that collaborate with Finnova in this initiative (University of Evora, IrRADIARE and the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve-AMAL) for the realization and implementation of the tasks included in the celebration of the “Accelerathon Spain-Portugal: innovation and cooperation against Covid-19 and climate change”.

Webinar registrations at: https://form.jotform.com/finnova/Final-Accelerathon-EuroAAA

About Startup Europe Accelerathon (www.accelerathon.eu)

Startup Europe Accelerathon aims to identify innovative ideas capable of obtaining funding from the European Union, such as the LIFE, Green Deal, Horizon 2020 or NextGenerationEU programme. Startup Europe Accelerathon follows the directions of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals contributing from each challenge to the proposed STO objectives; en the framework of the European Commission’s DG CONNECT Startup Europe Awards methodology that has been born since DG Research and Development in 2020 with the pan-European  Hackthevirus campaign. Se has successfully carried out with governments such as that of the Valencian Community with the challenge of industrial polluting  waters or Junta de Andalucía with the challenge of combating climate change, forest management and innovation in the prevention, firefighting and regeneration of burned spaces.

About Startup Europe Network

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

Learn more about Startup Europe: Startup Europe | Shaping Europe’s digital future (europa.eu)

About Startup Europe Awards (HIS) (www.startupeuropeawards.eu)

It is a methodology of dg CONNECT of the European Commission, implemented by the Finnova Foundation since 2016. SEUA is an open innovation tool to identify disruptive startups, promote public-private collaboration and raise awareness of the importance of self-priming as an employment-generating engine. In addition to building partnerships to help meet the United Nations SDS and the actions of the European Green Pact, thus contributing to the circular economy, the fight against climate change and sustainable tourism. The winners get support to turn their projects into large projects financially supported by the EU (between 500,000 euros and 17.5 million euros), international legal support and lobbying, strategic mentoring, international networking, investor access and support for internationalisation worldwide.

About CILIFO – Collaborating Project (www.cilifo.eu)

The Project The Iberian Centre for Forest Fire Research and Combat (CILIFO) is funded by the Interreg V-A Spain – Portugal – POCTEP Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (2014-2020),has a total budget of 24.6 million euros and is the Most Funded Interreg project in the history of the forest fire programme. It  focuses on the fight against forest fires and their consequences for the adaptation and mitigation of climate change; in a framework of cross-border cooperation for risk prevention and improvement of the management of the natural resources of Spain and Portugal in the area of the Alentejo – Algarve-Andalusia Euroregion. The project  follows the indications of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects.

About Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO (www.innovation.cilifo.eu)

The CILIFO Project through its Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO  (accelerator – incubator managed by Finnova) supports the initiatives of entrepreneurs and companies in the field of prevention and fight against forest fires. There are currently 18 companies affiliated to the accelerator and are being mentored and guided to initiatives in the search for European funding.

Finnova opens (www.finnova.eu)

European Foundation for the financing of innovation headquartered in Brussels and with offices in Andalusia, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, Madrid, the Canary Islands, and with its own delegations of local law in Romania, Panama and Chile and whose objectives are to promote public-private cooperation through innovation to address social challenges such as employment, training, entrepreneurship, the United Nations SDS , the circular economy, health, digitization, water and renewable energies. One of his priorities is the training of young talent in European affairs management in Brussels.

Contact

Beatriz Martínez Muñoz, European project and communication officer at the Finnova Foundation.

E-mail: beatriz.martinez@finnova.eu

Phone: +34 605 52 10 84

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Transfiere Forum, the main European forum for science, technology and innovation launches its tenth edition focusing on European recovery funds

The European recovery fund Next Generation EU, with a total of 1.8 billion euros, was the focus of most of the conferences and workshops during the first day of Transfiere.

Startup Europe Awards and Finnova have participated as jury of the Open Call for Deep Tech and Deep Science for Startups

Malaga, 15th April, 2021-. On Wednesday 14th April the tenth edition of Transfiere, the European Forum for Science, Technology and Innovation was inaugurated at the Malaga Trade Fair and Congress Centre. This is a professional and multi-sectoral forum held every year in Malaga whose main objectives are to promote innovation and competitiveness in the business sector, to encourage the transfer of knowledge between the scientific and business spheres, to serve as a meeting space to publicise new products and services and to generate business opportunities and B2B alliances.

Transfiere has presented a multidisciplinary programme that has brought together, on this first day, more than 200 leading voices from the national and international scene, more than 30 universities and more than 100 public and private entities through thematic panels and conferences divided into 5 different spaces: Science Room, Innovation Room, Technology Room, Open Innovation Area, Demo Center – TRL7, where participants were able to learn about opportunities for internationalisation, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and industry 4.0, research and funding, among others.

During the first day of the Forum, different stands were observed in the exhibition area of public and private entities, such as: Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE), the city council of Malaga, The centre for Technological and Industrial Development (CDTI), the Spanish National Research Centre (CSIC), ICEX Spain Export and Investment, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM), the European Institute for Innovation and Technology in Health (EIT Health), Finnova Foundation, the International University of Andalusia (UNIA), the University of Malaga, the Algeciras Technological Campus Foundation, the University of Cordoba, the CPS Group, ACM services, AERTEC, PCT Cartuja, and Enisa, among many others.

At the inauguration of the event, which took place on Wednesday 14 April at 11:00 am, it was recalled that Transfiere is one of the first events to be held in person in Spain with all the health safety measures available to make the event a safe place. The organisers expressed their interest in making this year a year of innovation in science and technology.

Felipe Romera, president of the Transfiere Organising Committee and president of the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE), alluded to the Spanish king, Felipe VI, in his capacity as honorary president of this tenth edition of the forum and stressed that “10 years after the first edition of this forum, it has become the main science, technology and innovation meeting in southern Europe, with the aim of connecting research talent with the business ecosystem”. Romera thanked all the entities present for their presence and recalled that “vaccines serve as an example of the union between science and technology and their transfer allows the well-being of citizens”.

This was followed by the keynote lecture “Start-up Planet” by the expert in innovation and disruptive technologies, Juan Martínez Barea, who spoke about his vision of what is going to happen in the coming years and stated that “innovation will play an essential role in a world that will be much more technological”. He also recalled that “start-ups are going to build the world of the future and revolutionise dozens of sectors, from health to energy and agri-food“.

For his part, Francisco de la Torre, Mayor of Malaga, alluded to the different challenges such as “health, environmental commitment, and digitalisation” and spoke of the opportunity provided by European funding. “Public-private collaboration is essential for all the challenges of the present and the future, and Transfiere Forum is a good and clear example of this,” stated de la Torre in his speech.

María Jesús Almazor, CEO Cyber&Cloud of Telefónica Tech, spoke of how “technology is increasingly changing and, therefore, we have to address digitalisation urgently”. José Carlos Gómez Villamandos, vice-president of the Transfiere Organising Committee and president of CRUE Universidades Españolas, stated that “it is not about transferring but sharing knowledge, between public and private organisations, companies and universities” and reminded that “Spain has to continue working to be a leading country in science and innovation”.

Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General for Science and Innovation of the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), referred to the Next Generation EU funds “which are being presented not only as a recovery plan, but also as a transformation plan”.  Pedro Duque, Minister of Science and Innovation, did not want to miss the event and did so in a non-presential way through a video in which he stated that “we are the tenth world power in scientific production and we are climbing fast in the innovation rankings” and recalled that in Transfiere all the public and private entities that depend on this ministry have presence and visibility.

Finally, Juan Manuel Moreno, President of the Andalusian Regional Government, closed the opening ceremony by stating that “the Andalusian government is trying to promote talent through knowledge to face an unparalleled crisis” and recalled that events such as Transfiere “are a valuable instrument for Andalusia, to build the great opportunities that are presented to us in terms of innovation”.

Startup Europe Awards was part of the jury of the Open Call for Deep Tech and Deep Science for Startups

Juanma Revuelta, director and founder of Startup Europe Awards (SEUA), an initiative of the European Commission implemented by Finnova since 2016, was part of the evaluation committee of the “Open Call for deep tech & deep science Start-ups”, coordinated by the Enterprise European Network (EEN), which was held on Wednesday 14 April in the afternoon and whose awards ceremony will take place one day later, on 15 April, in the Open Innovation Area from 10:45 to 11:30. In addition, the Finnova Foundation will award two acceleration tickets worth €5,000 to the most disruptive startups.

Thanks to this call, national and international start-ups with deep tech and deep science projects had the opportunity to increase their visibility to national and international investors who are experts in the sector. In this tenth edition of the Malaga meeting, the work of journalists and disseminators specialised in technological innovation in Spain was also rewarded, and for this reason, on 15 April, the awards of the 6th edition of the ‘Foro Transfiere’ Journalism Award for Supporting Scientific, Technological and Innovative Dissemination, worth €3,000, were presented.

Two innovative municipalities were also present at Transfiere: Vilamarxant (Valencia) and Coria del Rio (Andalusia). Together with the Finnova Foundation, they launched a few months ago the open innovation programmes Accelerathon: Rice Straw in Coria del Rio on the challenge of the circular economy in rice straw and Waste2Energy in Vilamarxant on the energy use of waste.

About Finnova Foundation

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

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.

For more information: www.startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

About FYCMA

FYCMA is a convention and trade fair centre located in the city of Malaga with an exhibition area of 19,500 m² spread over different buildings. It is currently one of the most active trade fair organisers in Southern Europe, being highly specialised in the conceptualisation and development of professional events linked to the field of innovation, digital transformation and knowledge generation.

For more information: www.fycma.com

About Transfiere

The main R+D+I meeting in Southern Europe for sharing scientific and technological knowledge, promoting innovation and connecting science and business. It is a key professional and multi-sectoral forum for knowledge transfer, improving competitiveness in the business sector and generating business and networking opportunities. Transfiere brings together every year in Malaga the main public and private agents relevant to the field of research and knowledge transfer.

For further information: https://transfiere.fycma.com/

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The 10th edition of Transfiere, the main R+D+I meeting in Southern Europe, will be celebrated in Málaga on the 14th and 15th April

The event will be held at the Malaga Trade Fair and Congress Centre (FYCMA)

Finnova Foundation will participate in the forum with a training workshop on European funds imparted by Juan Viesca, European Funds Director at the Foundation, who will talk about the available lines of financing for SMEs such as Next Generation EU

Juanma Revuelta, Director of Startup Europe Awards, una metodología de la DG CONNECT de la Comisión Europea será parte del Jurado de la Open Call for deep tech & deep science Start-ups, coordinada por la Enterprise European Network (EEN)

Brussels, 12th April 2021- The tenth edition of Transfiere, the European Forum for Science, Technology and Innovation, will take place on 14th and 15th April at the Malaga Trade Fair and Congress Centre. The main objectives of this professional and multi-sectoral forum, which is held every year in Malaga, are to promote innovation and competitiveness in the business sector, to encourage the transfer of knowledge between the scientific and business spheres, to serve as a meeting space to publicise new products and services and to generate business opportunities and B2B alliances.

At the pre-event press conference held on Friday 10th, Francisco de la Torre, Mayor of the city of Malaga, highlighted the fundamental role of the Transfiere Forum as an opportunity to promote public-private collaboration, as well as collaboration between all administrations: “The collaborative ecosystem of Transfiere 360 is a clear example”, stated the Mayor of Malaga.

Felipe Romera, President of the Transfiere Organising Committee, emphasised the security measures due to COVID-19: “the main novelty this year is that the forum will be held in person, with all the necessary security, hygiene and health measures to make it a safe event“. Romera also indicated that this year’s forum will feature more than 75 activities, including thematic panels, conferences and workshops, with the participation of more than 200 experts. “It is a great opportunity for the reactivation of businesses, innovation and research” declared Romera.

Enrique Quesada, representing CRUE (Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities) pointed out the importance of the collaboration between CRUE and Transfiere as “it allows the research carried out by universities to reach companies”.

Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General for Innovation at the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, highlighted the importance of this Forum for companies, SMEs, public administrations, startups, investors and technology centres to create synergies and various collaborations. She also stressed the importance of the European recovery fund Next Generation EU as it will define what the innovation and research programmes of the future will look like.

Finally, Rogelio Velasco, Minister of Economy of the Andalusian Regional Government highlighted the role of the Andalusian administration in public procurement of innovation, linked to knowledge transfer: “We have launched seventeen PPI projects”, said Velasco during the press conference.

Finnova Foundation will participate as experts in European funding and Startups

Transfiere 2021 launches on Wednesday 14th April its first Open Call for deep tech & deep science Start-ups, coordinated by Enterprise European Network (EEN) and whose awards ceremony will take place on the 15th in the Open Innovation Area from 10:45 to 11:30. Thanks to this initiative, national and international startups with deep tech and science projects have the opportunity to increase their visibility to national and international investors who are experts in the sector. Juanma Revuelta, CEO and founder of Startup Europe Awards (SEUA), an initiative of the European Commission implemented by Finnova since 2016, will be part of the evaluation committee for this call.

On Thursday 15th April from 14h00 to 15h00, Juan Viesca, European Funds Director at the Finnova Foundation, will lead at the Open Innovation Area a training workshop on European funds and other lines of financing for SMEs. Viesca will talk about all the funding tools available, including the Next Generation EU financial instrument, the largest economic and social recovery plan to date, with a total of 1.8 trillion euros, aimed at rebuilding a post-COVID-19 Europe: “a greener, more digital and resilient Europe”.

You can register for the workshop here.

Revuelta, CEO of Finnova and founding director of SEUA, affirms that “governments need to modernise their public policies and be aware of the amount of resources at their disposal”. In addition, the foundation has extensive experience in developing and collaborating on projects in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal in order to contribute to the promotion of innovation, technological and entrepreneurial progress in a sustainable way.

Transfiere, the first face-to-face event of 2021 celebrated at FYCMA under a rigorous protocol of security measures in order to provide a safe and secure space, presents a programme of thematic panels and conferences divided into 5 different spaces: Science Room, Innovation Room, Technology Room, Open Innovation Area, Demo Center – TRL7, where participants will be able to learn about opportunities for internationalisation, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and industry 4.0, public procurement of innovation, research, among others.

Besides, as every year, Transfiere has a guest country, a world reference in R+D+I, which actively participates in the main areas of the Forum. In this edition the guest will be Canada, recognised as one of the most innovative and competitive economies in the world.

Also, in this tenth edition of the Forum, the awards of the VI edition of the Journalism Award ‘Foro Transfiere’ in Support of Scientific, Technological and Innovative Dissemination, worth €3,000, will be presented. The aim of the award is recognising the work of journalists and disseminators of press, radio, television and digital media specialised in technological innovation.

Not yet registered for the Transfiere Forum? Do it here.

About Finnova Foundation

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

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.

For more information: www.startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

About FYCMA

FYCMA is a convention and trade fair centre located in the city of Malaga with an exhibition area of 19,500 m² spread over different buildings. It is currently one of the most active trade fair organisers in Southern Europe, being highly specialised in the conceptualisation and development of professional events linked to the field of innovation, digital transformation and knowledge generation.

For more information: www.fycma.com

About Transfiere

The main R+D+I meeting in Southern Europe for sharing scientific and technological knowledge, promoting innovation and connecting science and business. It is a key professional and multi-sectoral forum for knowledge transfer, improving competitiveness in the business sector and generating business and networking opportunities. Transfiere brings together every year in Malaga the main public and private agents relevant to the field of research and knowledge transfer.

For further information: https://transfiere.fycma.com/

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