• The Finnova Foundation dedicates an exclusive event to the financing of sustainable energy with experts in the field

• The subprogram dedicated to the transition to clean energy will favor the financing of innovation

• It is the first time that LIFE has dedicated a specific subprogram to the transition to clean energy and has a budget of €997 million.

Brussels 30.07.2021. On Wednesday, July 28, the Finnova Foundation organized the “Online meeting of networking, identification and doubt resolution for the LIFE 2021-2027 programme” on the last call of the LIFE Program.

Finnova carried out this intensive day with the aim of complementing the Info-Day, organized by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, in collaboration with the European Executive Agency for Climate, Infrastructure and Environment (CINEA) of the European Commission, one day before, on July 27.

There were almost 200 participants who obtained answers to all their doubts, in order to submit their projects to the new call of the LIFE 2021-2027 Program. The event began at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 6:00 p.m., addressing different specific challenges through 7 thematic sections, such as waste, water, sustainable mobility, cattle and livestock farming, forest fires, sustainable buildings, energy, tourism and the textile sector.

Throughout the day, European and Spanish specialists in different fields attended to introduce each of the thematic sections, such as Rudy Aernoudt, Economic Data Analyst of DG GROW. Different successful stories were also presented to encourage the attendees to participate.

The opening day was attended by Marc Pons, Head of Andorra Research + Innovation, representing Andorra as a benchmark for a region committed to the environment and climate action and introducing Andorra living lab as a future pilot testing lab.

The LIFE Program is the only financing instrument that the European Union dedicates exclusively to the environment, nature conservation and climate action. Since the first edition of the LIFE Program, launched in 1992, more than 900 projects have been passed in Spain, reaching a total amount of 5,400 million euros provided by the European Union. If we focus on the budget, the EU has granted aid for a total of 781 million euros to projects carried out in Spanish territory, while the total amount reaches the staggering figure of 9,000 million euros, allocated among projects implemented in all member countries.

The Finnova Foundation, with extensive experience in the planning, execution and management of European projects, is backed up by over 30 passed LIFE projects, resulting from the desire to promote innovation and the continuous generation of ideas in affairs related to the environment.

LIFE SUBPROGRAMME TRANSITION TO CLEAN ENERGY

The specific day for the sustainable energy challenge took place from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and included the participation of experts Juanma Revuelta, CEO of Finnova, and Juliana Herrero, renewable energy engineer.

The new LIFE subprogram – Transition to Clean Energy, is endorsed by a budget of 997 million euros for the 2021-2027 period and will select open innovation projects that help achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Energy Union and the Clean energy package.

According to Juliana Herrero, “it is the first time that LIFE dedicates a specific subprogram to the transition towards clean energy. The goal is to break market barriers down and enhance certain conditions to facilitate the energy transition in Europe”.

In relation with climate change mitigation, Europe intends to contribute to the socially fair and sustainable transition towards a neutral economy from the climate standpoint by 2050, in addition to reduce EU emissions in 2030 by at least 55%, compared to 1990 levels.

 The objectives of these projects are to facilitate the transition towards an energy efficient economy, based on renewable energy, climate neutral and resilient. They will focus on 4 areas:

• Create a national, regional and local policy framework that supports the clean energy transition

• Accelerate the deployment of technology, digitization, new services and business models, as well as the improvement of skills

• Attract private financing for sustainable energy projects

• Support local and regional investment projects

An introduced example of a successful LIFE project was LIFE ECODIGESTION2.0, through which a digital tool is developed for the automatized control of the dosage of organic waste in anaerobic digesters of WWTPs, maximizing the on-demand production of biogas as a renewable energy source. This project has a budget of over 970,000 euros, co-financed by the European Union. The pilot has a duration of four years (2020-2024) led by Global Omnium (Spain) and partnered together with the Finnova Foundation (Belgium) and Águas do Centro Litoral (Portugal).

LIFE ECOdigestion 2.0 aims to become a Next Generation project for the treatment of organic waste from livestock animals such as pigs, waste from the restaurant sector, waste from cooperatives, supermarkets or the organic section of urban solid waste. In this way, the production of biogas to cover energy demand and reduce the amount of waste in landfills contributes to comply with the European Directive on Landfills, which will also penalize and increase the cost of entering waste in landfills.

If you were unable to attend the speech, you can watch it now

About the Finnova Foundation

Finnova is a foundation that works for the promotion and development of innovation and entrepreneurship at the EU level. Headquartered in Brussels, it operates through collaborations and partnerships in all the countries of the European Union. Finnova’s experience leading communication activities and dissemination of European projects is combined with a solid proven experience in the creation of companies and business support programs, such as accelerators, incubators and selection and award of ceremonial events.

About Startup Europe Awards

It is a methodology from the DG CONNECT of the European Commission, implemented by the Finnova Foundation since 2016. SEAs are an open innovation tool to identify disruptive startups that promote public-private collaboration and raise awareness of the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driving force and an employment generator. In addition to generating alliances that help fulfill the United Nations SDGs and the actions of the European Green Deal, thus contributing to the circular economy, the fight against climate change and sustainable tourism.