Brussels, 14.07.2021 – On Tuesday 13 July 2021, in the framework of World Population Day and World Oceans Day, the Finnova Foundation and Startup Europe Awards launched the fourth day of the Next LATAM-EU Generation cycle: ‘Entrepreneurship and water: Engine of economic recovery and social development of regions and municipalities’, with the collaboration of the Business Market Network and the Ibero-American Congress of Family Businesses and SMEs.
The main objectives of this Next LATAM-EU Generation cycle are the transfer of knowledge, the raising of awareness of the financing mechanisms available between the two continents and the construction of common projects between different countries in Latin America and Europe in order to create business alliances on both sides of the Atlantic.
The fourth day of the Next LATAM-EU Generation cycle: ‘Entrepreneurship and water: Engine of economic recovery and social development of regions and municipalities’ was moderated by the CEO of Finnova – LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 Juanma Revuelta, who used LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 as an example of good practices with respect to water. This project in which the foundation participates as a partner is an initiative that will allow the control of on-demand production of biogas in digesters that work with sludge from WWTPs (wastewater treatment plants). Such a method provides a solution for the treatment of putrescible organic waste from animal farms such as pig or chicken slurry, waste from the HORECA sector, waste from cooperatives or supermarkets, or the organic fraction of solid urban waste, promoting sustainability and contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Javier Vázquez Hueso, CEO of EMALGESA and Deputy Mayor of City Council of Algeciras, the fourth most important port in Europe which is located between two continents, opened the institutional block commenting on the water agenda of the city of Algeciras. More than 25 million euros will be invested in the coming years in this area.
In this same block, Rafael Heredero, policy advisor at EurEau, broke down for understanding the European Green Pact. The EU uses it as a strategy to transform itself into a modern, competitive and resource-efficient economy that will minimise greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Luis Lehmann, a consultant in circular economy and sustainable economic development, headed the block of experts on water and regions with a speech focused on the major water problems in this new decade. These include water pollution, the low quality of water for human consumption and floods, all of them being problems that occur with an exceptionally high incidence in Latin America. ‘Taking on the challenges of tools such as the circular economy to achieve sustainable development is a great opportunity, especially for local governments’.
The CEO of Red Business Market Josu Gómez Barrutia highlighted that, in recent years, ‘we have observed a great interest in the start-up ecosystem in sustainability and the circular economy’. According to Gómez Barrutia, the increase in start-ups in the environmental field in Spain is over 36%, which has led to a 361% growth in patents related to proposals in sustainability or renewable energy, an indicator of the concern of start-ups for the environment.
Likewise, Ana Beccar Varela, water resources project manager at The Nature Conservancy, presented a long-term water fund management strategy. Her approach understood the funds as organisations that design and promote financial and governance mechanisms that articulate public, private and civil society actors in order to contribute to water security based on the integrated management of the basin and the use of nature-based solutions.
Diego Correa, executive director of APSU, presented a microwave extracting biochar from sludge that his company is working on. The project was accelerated by Finnova’s Startup Europe Accelerator after winning the water category of the 2017 Startup Europe Awards. Sludge is considered ‘one of the big water problems’, and Correa remarked that the reactor seeks to ‘reform that sludge, turn it into clean energy, eliminate pathogens, extract biogas with steam in a single process’.
From Águas de Gaia in Portugal, CEO Miguel Lemos focused on the urgency of protecting and caring for this resource: ‘Water is necessary for human life. We need to have a social, financial and environmental balance in water management’.
He was followed by José Teixeira, head of commercial administration at Buntplanet, a company that has developed unique software based on Artificial Intelligence to optimise water management and curb water loss through the digitisation of this resource.
Adrián Nadal, CEO of Bioferric, presented their technology dedicated to the design and assembly of industrial facilities for purification and cleansing of compounds. It won the first edition of the Water Accelerathon implemented by Finnova, proposing with their technology a recovery of materials of up to 95% of those present in the effluent.
To end the webinar, Adrian Noheda, director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Area of the Finnova Foundation, spoke to the present audience explaining the funding opportunities offered by the European Union to all those entrepreneurs who want to bring their projects to the EU and that have the participation of companies registered in the Member States.
Horizon Europe, the European Union’s recently launched new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (R&I) for 2021-2027, includes international cooperation with third countries.
The LIFE Programme is the EU’s funding instrument in the fields of environment and climate action created in 1992. For the period 2021-2027 the programme has a budget of €5.4 billion, an increase of €1.95 billion compared to the 2014-2020 period. LIFE has four sub-programmes with a co-financing rate of up to 60%: nature and biodiversity, circular economy and quality of life, mitigation and adaptation to climate change and transition to clean energy. This said, the speaker referred to the LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 project in consortium between Global Omnium, the Finnova Foundation and Aguas do Centro Litoral as an example of good practice.
If you were unable to attend the event, you can watch it here.
PREVIOUS DAYS
On the first day, held on 8 March to coincide with International Women’s Day, Patricia Llombart, Ambassador of the European Union in the Republic of Colombia, Liskel Álvarez, Councillor Delegate for External Action of the Cabildo of Tenerife and Adriana Vargas, Head of the Trade Section of the Colombian Mission to the European Union, among many other speakers, discussed the vision of women in LATAM-EU business cooperation, within the framework of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The second conference: ‘Challenges and opportunities for tourism through LATAM-EU cooperation in the context of the COVID-19 health crisis’ took place on 6 April and was held on the occasion of World Health Day. It addressed the challenges that the tourism sector is currently facing and how to address them. Manuel Vegas, President of the Association of Hotel Managers (AEDH), Antonio López de Ávila, Co-founder and CEO of Tourism Data Driven Solutions (TDDS) and Irene Sánchez, Business Creation Manager at EIT Health Spain, among others, took part in the event.
The third, held on 11 May on the occasion of World Recycling Day, was entitled: ‘Challenges of the circular economy in LATAM-EU cooperation as a model of production and consumption for sustainability’ and was attended by Isabel Silva Souza, ambassador of the Climate Pact of the European Commission, Álvaro Hernández, president of the Board of Directors of Inboplast, Sharam Yalda, partner of CirCoAX and founder of HumanNation, Alonso Salguero, CEO of GTA Ingeniería and Medioambiente, and Giuseppe Liberati, executive director of Bridging Value, among others.
The Next LATAM-EUGeneration cycle is divided into nine events in online format that will take place on the second Tuesday of each month in reference to an international day in line with the United Nations SDG challenges celebrated during the same month. As a culmination, at the end of this year, if the health situation allows it, a face-to-face meeting will be held in Medellin (Colombia) where the final of the LATAM Startup Europe Awards will be held.
About LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0
A European project that includes an automatic control system for the dosing of organic waste in anaerobic digesters of WWTPs to maximise the production of biogas on demand as renewable energy.
LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 is committed to making the use of biogas a reliable energy source to cover industrial energy demand as green energy to meet the EU target of achieving at least 27% of energy from renewable sources by 2030. This methodology is particularly interesting in Europe, where there are 18,000 wastewater treatment plants and where the energy cost is 0.8%.
The project started on 01/09/2020 and will run until 29/02/2024, with Global Omnium Medioambiente as the main coordinator and Finnova Foundation and the Portuguese consortium Águas do Centro Litoral as partners. Its budget is more than 970,000 euros.
About the Finnova Foundation
Spanish-Belgian Foundation for the financing of innovation, whose objectives are to promote public-private cooperation through innovation to address social challenges such as employment, training, entrepreneurship, the UN SDGs, the circular economy, etc. In its commitment to innovation, Finnova has been organising the Startup Europe Awards since 2016, an initiative of the European Commission’s DG Connect.
Finnova, with headquarters in Belgium and Spain, has its own delegations in Chile and Panama. In Spain, Finnova is present in Valencia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Madrid and the Canary Islands. www.finnova.eu