30 innovative ideas to fight water scarcity

According to the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) the food production consumes 70% of the world's freshwater resources. This data is of particular concern to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which has launched an initiative to find solutions to water scarcity, with a focus on Southern Europe. The project Finding innovative solutions for water scarcity in Southern Europe is organized by EIT Food, in collaboration with EIT Climate, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Raw Materials, and the support of Athena technology center and BioAzul consulting.

Three ‘campuses’ organized in Spain, Italy and Greece will bring together a total of 30 start-ups that will provide innovative ideas on how to solve water scarcity, a problem that currently affects a third of Europe, but that is expected to become a major issue for the entire region in just a few decades. The selected start-ups will receive personalized training, advice and mentoring for three months. The work of the start-ups will conclude with a final competition between them, the InnoWise Challenge Lab, that, in the case of Spain, will take place in Malaga on the 24^th September, during the Smart-Agrifood congress. Similar competitions will take place in Italy and Greece. The two best start-ups of each final competition will win prizes of 10,000 euros for the first and 5,000 for the second. These events will be held face-to-face whenever the situation of the Covid-19 allows it.

For more information about the start-ups selected for this project, please check below: