Innowise Scale Competition on Water Scarcity: Agriculture’s Case Study

The EIT Food South in collaboration with BIOAZUL organise the InnoWise Scale competition on water scarcity taking the agriculture sector as case study. The event will take place online the 4 October at 9am CEST bringing together problem holders with solution providers to develop solutions to better manage water resources in the sector. The competition will gather eight solution providers – with already developed or close-to-market solutions – that will compete to win the contest.

The solution providers competing will be six innovators from across Europe: Agrow Analytics, Bunt Planet, Visualnacert and Secaflor Sur from Spain; Neuropublic and Wings ICT Solutions from Greece; Sinafis from France; and Soonapse from Italy. The winners of the competition will be granted with 12,000 euros (1st prize), 10,000 euros (2nd prize) in equity-free cash, to be used for scaling up their businesses.

Moreover, there will be a special of 30,000 euros for testing purposes. This prize will be granted to the solution provider that better addresses the problem holder: SanLucar, an international company based in Spain producing and supplying fruits and vegetables all around the world. The key challenges they presented to the scaleups are water availability and shortages; salt concentrations; crop water efficiency; and water savings.

REVOLVE will facilitate the event, opened by Carmen Galindo – project manager at EIT Food South–. Fernando Bañón – production director at SanLucar – will present the case study to the audience, followed by Luciano Mateos – researcher at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture – CSIC – that will present the innovations in the agri-food sector to cope with water scarcity. Once the ground is set with these two presentations, the innovators will pitch their innovative solutions to answer the problem holder challenges.

While the jury deliberates, Gaetane Suzennet – EU Water Tech Accelerator –, María Echávarri – Fondo Bolsa Social – and David Smith – WE&B – will delve into the challenges and opportunities for investments in the water&agri-food sector. The award ceremony will take place at the end of the event, announcing the winners and the condition of the awards. The InnoWise Scale competition is the final step of 3 month of mentoring, training, and networking opportunities between problem holders and solution providers. The final goal of the InnoWise Scale activities is to accelerate the market uptake of the green solutions in Europe. It supports innovators working on disruptive products or services enabling a better water management, optimising water supply and demand, and fostering climate change readiness of the European economy.

This event is one in a series of three framed as part of the EIT cross-KIC project “Finding innovative solutions for water scarcity in Southern Europe”. The objective of the programme is to enhance knowledge and overcome current barriers to tackle water scarcity in Southern Europe through innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and communication.