Brussels, 28 July 2021 – On Wednesday 28 July, Finnova Foundation held an online networking and Q&A open day about the recent LIFE call. The main goal was to break down into seven thematic panels all novelties about the recent LIFE Programme 2021-2027 call and to answer all questions attendees had. Every panel featured experts on each specific domain.

The LIFE Programme, launched in 1992, is the only EU fund entirely dedicated to environmental, nature-conservancy and climate objectives. To date, more than 900 projects have been approved in Spain – 5400 projects in total across the EU. With regard to funding, the EU has granted a total amount of €781 million to projects which have been implemented in Spain – the total amount of funds amounts to €9 billion for projects implemented in all EU countries.

Panel 1 (09:00) addressed the “Next Cities Generation: Waste, Circular Economy and Water” challenge. Sandra Jorge, water supply operations manager at Águas do Centro Litoral, a project partner, introduced LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 to the audience.

LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 is an innovative circular economy and green energy intrapreneurship project which harnesses biogas – an organic waste-based fuel generated in wastewater treatment plants – to optimally power these plants by using a software-based control system.

This project has a budget of €978,000 and a duration of almost four years, from September 2020 to Feabruary 2024. LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 is coordinated by Global Omnium Medioambient and partnered by Finnova Foundation and Águas do Centro Litoral.

Further in the afternoon, panel 5 tackled sustainable energy. Juanma Revuelta, CEO of Finnova Foundation, introduced LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 as an example of best practice.