Salamanca, September 7, 2021 – The second day through the Startup Olé event has brought together Ilaria Bonetti, Head of Innovation and Projects Unit of Innovhub SSI, Ilaria Re, EU Project Officer Director in Italbiotec and Lisanne Rader Schall, Policy Analyst of OECD at a round table moderated by Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of the Finnova Foundation. This conversation has highlighted the importance of bioeconomy for the future of Europe and the transformation of many processes, focusing on the rural environment.
The central focus at the round table has been put on publishing the innovative processes developed by the speakers through their projects and the financing possibilities that can be considered through European funds.
The three participants agreed on the importance of bioeconomy to find solutions to common challenges that arise on all continents.
According to Ilaria Bonnetti, “bioeconomy is something that represents a change in philosophy and the way of doing business, and also creates many benefits that are reflected in companies and in the environment.” In line with these statements, Ilaria Re affirmed that through the new processes that can be generated with the bioeconomy, a greater deal of significant actions can be achieved in society, in relation to rural areas.
Lissane Rader Schall has highlighted the importance of raising awareness among youth to encourage the development and growth of innovation projects capable of bringing us closer to a more sustainable and beneficial development.
During the conversation, the existence of various European funds was remarked, something which has been set out so that interested participants can get to know better about it. To this end, a call has been made to participate in the next event for Startups, COP 26, designed to generate new entrepreneurial opportunities.
As a successful case of a project that has been passed with European funds, the Finnova Foundation has presented LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0. This European project revolves around an automatic control system for dosing organic waste in WWTPs anaerobic digesters to maximize the production of on-demand biogas as a renewable energy.
LIFE Ecodigestion2.0 is committed to making the use of biogas into a reliable source to meet industrial energy demand as a green source of energy that meets the European Union target of reaching at least 27% of energy from renewable sources by 2030. This methodology is especially interesting in Europe, given that there are 18,000 treatment plants with an energy cost of 0.8%. The project began on 09/01/2020 and is expected to run until 02/29/2024, with Global Omnium Medioambiente as the main coordinator and Fundación Finnova and the Portuguese consortium Águas do Centro Litoral as partners. Budget exceeds 970,000 euros.
Both the speakers and the moderator have thanked the Startup Olé organization for the great job carried out as a bridge between associations, startups and investors, since new collaborations and interactions between projects are generated through these types of conversations. In addition, the possibility for entrepreneurs of combining different funding lines through European funds has been highlighted. The Startup Olé event will continue to take place until next Friday, September 10.
