CILIFO, through the Finnova Foundation, launches an Accelerathon on prevention and fighting of forest fires, and the post-fire recovery of affected habitats within the Euroregion Alentejo-Algarve-Andalucía

  • This Accelerathon will be introduced during a webinar celebrated next 15thJune 2020
  • Winners will receive a European acceleration ticket in order to get access to EU funds, internationalize or attract an investment of up to €2 million for a pilot project

05.06.2020. Finnova Foundation has organised, as a partner of the Iberian Centre for Research and Forest Firefighting (CILIFO by its acronym in Spanish), an Accelerathon on prevention and fighting of forest fires, and the post-fire recovery of burnt areas.

This initiative aims to rise a series of innovative challenges in order to employ them in real life for the prevention and fighting of forest fires, and the post-fire recovery of affected areas, using for that purpose EU funds. Additionally, this tool will give visibility to the CILIFO Project and to the activity of cross-border beneficiaries from the Euroregion Alentejo-Algarve-Andalucía.

Accelerathon-CILIFO encourages networking and open innovation through its incubation programme Firefighting Open Innovation Lab – CILIFO. CILIFO’s accelerator would bring in innovative solutions to common challenges that could receive Community funds applying for open calls of the LIFE programme on Environment, among other EU programmes.

Participate in the Accelerathon-CILIFO here.

The Accelerathon-CILIFO will be introduced by Finnova Foundation during a webinar on Zoom that will take place on Monday, 15th June 2020, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (CEST). We will disclose more information concerning the speakers that will participate in the webinar and how to attend very soon.

WHAT IS ACCELERATHON?

Accelerathon is an acceleration programme for innovative projects powered by Finnova Foundation. Finnova’s methodology aims to find solutions and funding for projects through an applied, online open innovation system. Its objective is to bind together all the actors from the innovative ecosystem related to environment, a domain in which the European Commission is currently working.

In order to accomplish that purpose, there will be training, mentors, a jury and some very special prizes. One of them is that the winner will have the possibility to present its project to an EU open call, such as the LIFE programme, and receive up to €2 million for its project for a period of three years.

ACCELERATHON’S GOAL AND CHALLENGE

The aim is to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs 13 and 15 of the United Nations through innovation on the adoption of urgent measures in order to combat climate change and its impacts, and protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

The challenges presented are:

  1. Prevention of forest fires.
  2. Fighting of forest fires.
  3. Recovery of habitats after forest fires.

The purpose of these challenges is to identify innovative solutions, and attract enterprises, public and private entities, startups and entrepreneurs, so they can define their own environmental challenges concerning the prevention and fighting of forest fires, and the post-fire recovery of affected areas.

ACCELERATHON – CILIFO

ACCELERATHON – CILIFO

Who is it for?

Accelerathon is an innovation competition for entrepreneurs, universities, institutes of technology, business associations, municipalities, industrial parks, SMEs, and public and private entities from all over the world. The only condition is to be engaged with the above-mentioned challenges.

Team competition and training

During the competition, the different teams will be able to make use of e-learning tools and apply the LIFE methodology. A joint work will be developed in order to achieve optimal solutions. Participants will be offered to enrol in a training session on EU funding

Download the Accelerathon-CILIFO roadmap here

CONTACT:

Beatriz Martínez Muñoz (EU Project and Communications Officer at Finnova)

beatriz.martinez@finnova.eu +34 605 52 10 84

José Manuel Requena Benítez (International Project Manager at Finnova)

jrequena@finnova.eu  +34 639 99 15 27

2nd Edition Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards SEUA – CILIFO (2020)​

08.05.2020. The StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an initiative promoted by the European Commission, supported by the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament; and implemented by the Finnova Foundation (hereinafter Finnova) in collaboration with StartUp Europe.

SEUA is an open innovation tool that allows companies to identify new talented start-ups, which are able to solve current challenges in multiple areas. Finnova’s mission with this initiative is to help start-ups and scale-ups become more efficient, intelligent and successful.

On the occasion of Europe Day (9 May 2020), the Finnova Foundation, a beneficiary of the CILIFO project, launches the 2nd Edition Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards SEUA – CILIFO (2020). This methodology will identify those that offer products, services or methodologies that address the three phases in fire fighting 1) Prevention 2) Action 3) Regeneration They should provide an improvement in the efficiency of resources in fire fighting; technological tools; social awareness; fire behaviour; spatial and temporal patterns of fire; fire meteorology and fire danger classification; fire extinguishing techniques; terrestrial, aerial and spatial detection; restoration; etc. The aim is to identify and support these entrepreneurs and to implement these good ideas for the benefit of society as a whole by generating a public-private partnership that will lead to the drafting of projects and thus access to European Union funds.

OBJECTIVE: to help address the impact of climate change, as well as economic and human losses, by rewarding new companies or entrepreneurs, both in the research and implementation stages, offering solutions for fire prevention, extinction and recovery.

TARGETS: Entrepreneurs and start-ups with ideas/projects related to the fight against forest fires in the 3 action areas of the CILIFO project (Prevention, Action and Regeneration).

The second edition of the Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards is planned in the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2020 (12-15 October), as it is the largest annual event based in Brussels dedicated to regional policy. The #EURegionsWeek brings together regions and cities from across Europe, including their political representatives, officials, as well as experts and academics. It is an event that promotes how regions and cities use EU funds to improve the daily lives of citizens.

The 2020 edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) will take place from 12-15 October in Brussels, Belgium. During that week, the 2nd Edition Firefighting StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA-CILIFO) will be held and will reward companies and entrepreneurs who have an innovative solution in the framework of fighting forest fires; and their consequences for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

To participate, apply at the following link: https://www.f6s.com/startupeuropeawards/apply

Contact: beatriz.martinez@finnova.eu / seua@finnova.eu