The winners will be eligible for a total of up to 2 milion euros per project, subsidized by the Life program
- The finalist teams are: EXIT – Extraction mIcroplasTic, WaterFly, and the Sustainable Municipal Wastewater Treatment Project
- The winners Will apply for a European acceleration ticket to Access EU funds, internationalize, or access investment
Brussels, June 25, 2020 – Next Monday, June 29 at 5:00 p.m. (CEST) the final and award ceremony of the Accelerathon IVACE, an open innovation competition organized by IVACE, will be held, in collaboration with Seimed, Redit, Aidimme and ADR Forum, and implemented by Finnova. During this last week, the program participants have worked on different multidisciplinary proposals for wastewater treatment as a source of resources and for the recovery of water, energy and raw materials under the mentoring of experts in European funds from the Finnova Foundation.
The program started on May 28 with a total of 12 teams. After two semifinals, only three teams have made it to the final and the awards ceremony: EXIT – Extraction mIcroplasTic, WaterFly and the Sustainable Project for the treatment of residual waters for municipalities.
Team 2: EXIT – Extraction mIcroplasTic
“Our project aims to demonstrate the viability of the use of magnetic particles for the removal and recovery of PM present in wastewater, both urban and industrial, avoiding its discharge into the environment and contributing, through its subsequent valorization, to the Economy model Circular promoted by the European Union (COM (2018) 28 final). The proposed technology has already been validated on a laboratory scale, achieving MP removal efficiencies greater than 99%, using real wastewater for this.”.
Team 6: WaterFly
“From Waterfly, we propose a solar energy project, a solution to produce clean water in a sustainable way from seawater and other complex water sources (brackish, contaminated with heavy metals, increasingly saline). Based on the natural water cycle, the novelty of this approach lies in the combined use of heat and electricity generated by the solar to power the desalination process”.
Team 8: Sustainable wastewater treatment project for municipalities
“A fundamental part of our proposal is to recycle 95% of the treated water, reuse it, make it drinkable and purify it for human use and consumption. In other words, our system will make the most of the water and will give it a different purpose than that of waste. By not using chemicals, we are benefiting users, causing low environmental impact and saving additional costs on consumables and maintenance”.
During the ceremony, each of the teams will present an elevator pitch that will undergo a double assessment: a jury made up of experts will analyze the proposals of each team and their assessment will correspond to 80% of the overall score. The remaining 20% will hang of the evaluation of the listening public, who will also have the opportunity to rate the projects presented.
Carolina Lechado, engineer and team coordinator for the Accelerathon IVACE Water Startup Europe Awards, says that “these have been very intense weeks of work with really good projects. We are very excited about the result”.
The winners of the Accelerathon IVACE Water Startup Europe Awards, organized by the Startup Europe Accelerator of the Finnova Foundation, will receive an acceleration ticket to access the financing of the call of the Life 2020 program of the European Commission that allocates around 2 million euros per project. In addition, they will participate in the European Startup Europe Awards competition as finalists of the vertical water. This open innovation methodology of the Finnova Foundation aims to find solutions and financing through an online open innovation system applied with e-learning that brings together the innovative ecosystem in the water sector.
The Startup Europe Awards program of the DG CONNECT of the European Commission is managed by the Finnova Foundation and is aimed at officials and political decision-makers of municipalities, companies and public corporations, employers’ associations, technological institutes, universities, and innovative companies with patents or corporations. It deals with environmental challenges that can be solved with the financial and technological boost of the Life program of the DG ENVIRONMENT of the European Commission.
To register for the final webinar, you can access it with this link, and you can learn more about the program at www.accelerathon.eu.
What is SEIMED?
SEIMED is the central point in the Valencian Community of the network of European business service centers 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 is the Valencian Community Chambers of Commerce, REDIT Innovation Network, CEV, University of Alicante and CEEI Valencia.
What is Finnova?
It is the European Foundation for the financing of innovation. Its objectives are to promote private and 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, and 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, vertical, regional, and national entrepreneurship programs seeks that startups and scaleups access the opportunities of the EU to receive training and mentoring, internationalize their Project, and access the market through European projects, obtain subsidies, networks, 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, 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 fulfill the SDGs of the United Nations and the actions of the European Green Pact, thus contributing to the circular economy, it also works in the fight against climate change and sustainable tourism.
Information of Interest
Official Webpage og Accelerathon
Video Accelerathon Ivace Water Startup Europe Awards
Final Banner – Monday, June 29th at 5pm (CEST)
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