Startup Europe Awards

CILIFO to discuss EU funding opportunities in agricultural and forestry waste management on EU Sustainable Energy Week & EU Sustainable Development Week

08.09.2021. On Friday 24 September 2021, the project entitled ‘Interreg CILIFO (Centro Ibérico para la Investigación y Lucha contra Incendios Forestales)’1 and its accelerator Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO (FOIL-CILIFO) will hold an event organised by Finnova Foundation – one of the beneficiaries of CILIFO. This event will be held within the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), the largest event devoted to renewable energies and its efficient use across Europe, and the EU Sustainable Development Week (ESDW), an EU initiative to promote and to showcase projects upholding sustainable development and SDGs.

Within CILIFO, Finnova Foundation manages FOIL-CILIFO and is also involved in disseminating EU funding opportunities for innovative solutions helping meet the objectives of CILIFO and FOIL-CILIFO via the ‘Training in Financial Sources’ programme.

Register here: inscripcion-foil.cilifo.eu

The event entitled ‘Forest Waste to Energy (FOIL-CILIFO): EU Funding for Innovative Solutions in Agricultural and Forestry Waste Management’ will focus mainly on the opportunities of EU funding mechanisms – such as LIFE – to finance projects which use innovative solutions to help fight against climate change. From public institutions and experts on EU funds to partners of CILIFO, panelists will discuss proposals enabling to harness or to correctly manage agricultural and forest wastes in areas stricken by forest fires.

The goal of this event is to talk about EU funding opportunities for proposals introducing innovations on agricultural and forestry management practices. The participation of CILIFO in the EUSEW’s ‘Sustainable Energy Days’ and in the ESDW’s ‘Sustainability Action Days’ will help disseminate CILIFO and will consolidate its mission in the sustainable development field as well as its climate commitment at an EU level.

During the event, the 3rd Edition of Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA-CILIFO) will be launched. SEUA-CILIFO is an initiative promoted by the European Commission, implemented by Finnova Foundation along with StartUp Europe, and endorsed by CILIFO. The aim is to identify innovative start-ups offering products, services or methods addressing the three stages in forest firefighting: 1) prevention, 2) extinction, and 3) regeneration. Start-ups should contribute to the following areas: improving the efficiency of resources in fighting against forest fires; providing technological tools; raising social awareness; addressing fire behaviour; analysing time and space patterns; addressing forest fire meteorology and hazard classification; putting forward extinction techniques; conducting terrestrial, aerial and spatial surveillance; addressing the regeneration of burnt areas, et cetera. For more information, check https://innovation.cilifo.eu/3a-edicion-seua-cilifo-2021.

Fundación ONCE will provide a broad overview of a training course entitled ‘Raising Awareness about Diversity in Forests’ which will discuss the needs of disabled persons and other vulnerable groups when forest fires break out. It is an online free course and it will kick off on 4 October. This course is aligned with CILIFO’s efforts to raise awareness about these topics.

CILIFO strives to achieve an effective control of forest fires as well as addressing their consequences. CILIFO aims to prevent forest fires by raising awareness and by applying a mitigation approach in rural areas. Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO (FOIL-CILIFO) serves as a meeting point for enterprises and technologies working to prevent and extinguish forest fires and address post-fire management – a severe problem affecting large swaths of land each year.

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

As one of the beneficiaries of the CILIFO, Finnova Foundation is in charge of Firefighting Open Innovation Lab-CILIFO (FOIL-CILIFO), the first business and technology accelerator in the forest fire and forest management field. It has more than 30 initiatives and it has already published a first catalogue of accelerated technologies. This accelerator supports initiatives by entrepreneurs and enterprises on forest firefighting, forest management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Firefighting Open Innovation Lab-CILIFO (FOIL-CILIFO) has been selected by the assessment committee of the Subdirección General de Apoyo a la PYME (in English, SMEs Support General sub-directorate) as the winner of the national round and it will represent Spain in the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA).

About Interreg CILIFO
www.cilifo.eu

CILIFO (Centro Ibérico para la Investigación y Lucha contra los Incendios Forestales) is a European project funded under the Interreg VA España-Portugal (Interreg POCTEP 2014-2020) Cross-border Cooperation Programme. It aims at strengthening and fostering cooperation, improving the response capability of public authorities when fires break out, and fostering long-term and quality employment in the cooperation area. Through its Firefighting Open Innovation Lab, CILIFO endorses the initiatives of entrepreneurs and enterprises helping prevent and fight against forest fires.

About Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards https://startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/

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 at identifying disruptive start-ups and promoting public-private partnerships. They also seek to raise awareness on the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driving force for job creation. Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards is an initiative promoted by the European Commission and implemented by Finnova along with Startup Europe and endorsed by CILIFO which seeks to identify innovative and promising start-ups helping meet the current challenges in the forest fire management area. It strives to identify start-ups offering products, services or methods addressing the three stages of forest firefighting: prevention, action, and regeneration.

About Finnova Foundation
www.finnova.eu

Finnova is a foundation working to promote and develop innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit in the EU. Headquartered in Brussels, it works through collaborations and partnerships across all EU countries. Finnova’s experience in communicating and disseminating European projects is coupled with an extensive and grounded experience in creating businesses and programmes to support enterprises, such as accelerators, incubators, and the selection and organisation of ceremonies and events.

About EU Sustainable Energy Week
https://www.eusew.eu/

Since 2016, EASME (Executive Agency for SMEs) has been organising this week to build a safe energetic future for Europe. The 2021 edition of EUSEW will be held from 25 to 29 October and its slogan is ‘Towards 2030: Reshaping the European Energy System’. Within this week, public institutions, private entities, NGOs, and consumers will show their initiatives to reduce energy spending and to promote a change in terms of the use of renewable, safe and efficient energies. EUSEW aims to achieve energy efficiency, the decarbonisation of economies and the promotion of research, innovation and competitiveness.

About European Sustainable Development Week
https://esdw.eu/

The ESDW is a European week which seeks to facilitate the organisation of activities centered on actions fostering sustainable development as well as to create synergies. The 2021 edition of ESDW will be held from 20 to 26 September, although side events may take place from 18 September until 8 October. ESDW is fully committed to the2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs. Therefore, all the activities and the events which will be held will necessarily focus on the SDGs.