Richwater as a success story at the European Innovation Council Conference

Bioazul presented the RichWater project as a success story in the presentation of the pilot programme of the European Innovation Council on June 25 in Madrid.

The event was organized by the Foundation of Knowledge Madri+d, focused on bringing scientific knowledge to society by improving higher education, promoting culture and transferring technology. The conference also had the collaboration of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Madrid, the European Commission and the CDTI (Center for Technological and Industrial Development).

The objective of the event was to present the new pilot programme for the financing of innovative projects created by the European Innovation Council. Through this support instrument for entrepreneurs, the council aims to promote innovative activities within the project. The programme also contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals through the projects it finances. Climate change is one of its main priorities and, as a result, Horizon Europe has allocated 35% of the total financing budget.

The opening of the conference was in charge of Federico Morán, director of the Madrid+d Foundation, who welcomed all the attendees and made a summary of the day’s programme. Afterwards, Luis Guerra from the National Contact Point at CDTI presented the new pilot programme of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and explained the innovations in the work program 2018 – 2019 of Instrument for SMEs and Fast Track to Innovation. To provide some examples of innovation for the new program, different project managers were invited to present their projects as a success story.

Bioazul presented the project RichWater focused on the treatment and use of reclaimed water in agriculture. Rafael Casielles as coordinator of the project presented the innovative technology used in RichWater which irrigates crops with reclaimed water. This project was funded by the pilot programmme Fast Track to Innovation, one of the programs presented during the day, intended to promote innovative solutions.

Furthemore, he also presented the SUWANU EUROPE project focused on the use of reclaimed water. This is a themathic network wich aims to promote the effective exchange of knowledge, experience and skills between practitioners and relevant actors of water reuse in agriculture.

In addition to RichWater, other success stories such as the INTERCOME and ISBEN were also presented. The first case was introduced by Carlos Rodríguez from Algaenergy and was aimed at the international commercialization of innovative products on microalgae and the second, presented by Anxo Sánchez of the Carlos III University of Madrid, is designed to understand the human behaviour at large scale using big data.

The day ended with a round of questions that was led by Luis Guerra from the National Point of Contact at CDTI and Jesús Rojo, Head of the Area of Technology Transfer and European Programs of the madri+d Foundation.