Startup Europe Awards

Finnova co-organises four official events within the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)

  • The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties COP26 2021 will take place from 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow and Brussels.
  • Finnova is co-organising four side events to present European projects CILIFO, LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0, CirCoAX, and S-moving.
  • These projects deal with climate change mitigation, optimal production and use of renewable energies, the circular economy, and sustainable mobility, respectively.

Brussels. 27.10.201 From 31 October to 12 November, Glasgow (UK) and Brussels (Belgium) will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties 2021 (COP26). Finnova Foundation is co-organising four events to present a number of European projects focusing on the optimal production and usage of renewable energies, the circular economy, sustainable mobility, and climate change mitigation.

The COP26 events will be held in Glasgow and Brussels and they will also be live broadcasted. Attendees may register using this form.

LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0: European Sustainable Bioeconomy

Finnova’s first event will be ‘LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0: Powering the EU through 2050: Turning the Bioeconomy into Reality’. It will be a hybrid event from Brussels and the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain) within the framework of the Biosphere Reserve programme, and it will take place on Friday 5 November from 9:30 to 10:30 (CEST).

Panelists at this event, which is co-organised by Finnova Foundation, Metabolic Institute, and Global Omnium will provide an overview on the current situation of bioeconomy in Europe and they will discuss solutions to ensure the EU’s climate neutrality by 2050. The European project entitled ‘LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0’ will be presented as an innovative solution aiming to transform the sludge emanating from wastewater treatment plants using an automatic control software to subsequently pump them into anaerobic digesters to maximise the on-demand production of biogas.

This conference will feature the contributions of Harmen Dekker, Director of the European Biogas AssociationJuan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of Finnova Foundation, and a number of representatives from Global Omnium. The event will be topped off with the delivery of the Bioeconomy COP26 Startup Europe Awards (SEUA), where the most innovative idea, project, or start-up in bioeconomy will be awarded. This event will be held on the occasion of the COP26 Energy Transition Day and it will coincide with the celebration of the Primer Congreso Internacional sobre Canarias como “Kilómetro Cero Mundial de los Océanos” y la Reserva de la Biosfera de El Hierro como “kilómetro Cero de los Zifios” del Corredor Biológico Mundial.

Apply for the BieconomyCOP26 Startup Europe Awards here.

CirCoAX: Circular Economy in the Textile Sector

The webinar called ‘Textile & Circular Economy: “Next Generation EU Startup Europe Awards (SEUA) for Circular and Disruptive Solutions in Textiles”’ will be held from La Palma island (Canary Islands, Spain) on Saturday 6 November from 18:30 to 19:30 CEST. The event seeks to foster the circular economy in Latin America, the EU, and Scotland in the fashion and textile industry – the second most polluting in the world.

Finnova Foundation and Zero Waste Scotland will lead this event, which will look at cooperation and supporting alternative models for the green transition of the textile sector using innovation, EU funded facilities, and clusters like NextextileGeneration. The event will feature the presentation of the CircularInnoBooster project and its accelerator CirCoAX as a success story funded by the EU. This project seeks to make textile and fashion companies more sustainable and circular. The event will be attended by Antonio Fernández, the president of the Consejo Científico de la Reserva Mundial de la Biosfera La Palma. The event will be wrapped up with the delivery of the Nextextile COP26 Startup Europe Awards (SEUA).

Apply for the Nextextile COP26 Startup Europe Awards here.

Interreg CILIFO: Fighting Forest Fires and Climate Change Mitigation

Finnova Foundation, Helmholtz Climate Initiative, and Forestry Division of FAO, will jointly hold this event on Monday 8 November 2021 from 18:30 to 19:30 CEST both in the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow and online. ‘Forest Ecosystems Trends and Innovation: Satellite Observation, Simulations, and Firefighting’ will provide a timely opportunity to assess the current and future state of forests, and special attention will be paid to fighting forest fires and mitigating climate change. The event will feature the contributions of the Minister of the Canaries Department for Green Transition, Climate Change Mitigation, and Cohesion, José Antonio Valbuena, and Bárbara Dietrich, a representative of Diplomatic World, inter alia.

Finnova’s contribution in this event will revolve around the CILIFO project and its accelerator Firefighting Open Innovation Lab which are being led by the Andalusia Regional Government and which endorse initiatives to prevent and extinguish forest fires, forest management, and climate change adaption and mitigation.

At the end of the event, the fundamental role of innovation and entrepreneurship will be acknowledged as the 3rd edition of the Firefighting Startup Europe Awards (SEUA-CILIFO) 2021 will be delivered. These awards are an open innovation tool to identify creative and promising start-ups capable of solving the current challenges in fighting forest fires. The goals of these awards are to spot enterprises offering products, services, or methodologies addressing the three main challenges in fighting forest fires: prevention, suppression, and regeneration. Innovations should focus on improving the efficiency of equipment in fighting forest fires, the creation of technological tools, raising social awareness, studying the evolution of fires, cataloguing the level of hazardousness of forest fires, and analysing fire meteorology and spatial and time patterns. The winner will receive an acceleration ticket from Startup Europe worth €10,000, along with mentorship sessions and technical assistance from Finnova’s experts and other external mentors.

Sustainable moving: Transitioning towards Sustainable Urban Mobility

The last event where Finnova will take part will be held on Friday 12 November from 11:00 to 12:00 CEST at Brussels Bloom Hotel (Brussels) – it will also be live broadcasted – and will focus on ‘Sustainable Mobility: Integrative/Complementary Approaches for Net-zero Urban Transportation”’. The event will feature the contributions of the Malaga City Council, the MobiliseYourCity and the Climate Rally project and will focus on proposals aiming to ensure a green transition towards sustainable and fair urban mobility. In this context, experts in mobility will discuss how innovation in the automobile sector can ensure a zero-emission future by presenting a number of proposals to integrate disruptive technologies and the correct access to EU funds to develop their ideas.

At the end of the event, the winners of the Sustainable Mobility COP26 Startup Europe Awards will be announced. This is a timely opportunity to spread innovations in mobility which are being implemented in cities like Malaga, which is at the forefront in these kinds of sustainable proposals.

Apply for the Sustainable Mobility COP26 Startup Europe Awards here.

About COP26 (https://ukcop26.org/)

Created by the United Nations 30 years ago, the COP26 is the most important international forum to address climate change. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the annual summit set up by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which brings together 196 contracting countries plus the EU.

Although it was initially planned to be held in 2020, the COP26 had to be put off until November 2021 due to COVID-19. The 2021 edition will host on-site and online events from 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow and Brussels, and they will focus on engaging in new commitments to contain temperature rise to 1.5 degrees this century. This goal will only be met provided that global emissions are halved by 2030 and net-zero emissions are achieved by 2050.

About Finnova Foundation (www.finnova.eu)

Finnova is a European foundation located in Brussels and Spain providing funds for innovative projects. Finnova aims at promoting public-private partnerships through innovation to tackle social challenges like employment, training, entrepreneurship, SDGs, and the circular economy, among others. Finnova is in charge of organising the Startup Europe Awards, an initiative by the European Commission and Finnova Foundation to reward the best European social start-ups.

About StartUp Europe Awards (www.startupeuropeawards.eu)

StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an initiative set up by the European Commission and is supported by the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament. The implementation of SEUA falls on Finnova and StartUp Europe. These awards are an open innovation tool to identify promising start-ups capable of solving current challenges. Additionally, SEUA strives to scale-up start-ups using a new strategy based on innovation by encouraging entrepreneurs to take a step forward and cooperate with organisations or professionals.