The European Union has established itself as the great ally for companies with disruptive projects and for emerging companies. Programs such as the European Innovation Council Accelerator or LIFE, more focused on the environment, offer not only financing but also guidance to launch successful projects: contact with tutors, mentors and experts, access to partnership opportunities with companies and investors and technical assistance for project preparation.
Bringing solar energy where electricity does not reach, avoiding water evaporation, thus protecting our agriculture, or making package delivery more efficient are some of the ideas that the protagonists of our stories had. Stories that might not have seen the light of day if they had not found help from the European Union.
The CEI Accelerator offers SMEs, emerging companies and entrepreneurs the possibility of accessing grants of up to 2.5 million euros to finance projects of certain risk, but with great potential. In addition, it also allows access to capital investment for commercial activities and strengthening its international presence. In Spain, more than 1,046 projects have already been financed (if we take into account its predecessor, the SME Instrument) between 2014 and 2023 with a budget of more than 350 million euros.
The LIFE Program, for its part, is a program that supports entity projects on the environment or climate action with up to 60% of the total budget. After more than 30 years in operation, LIFE has promoted almost 1,000 projects in Spain with a contribution of more than 972 million euros.
The new letters are the packages that come from e-commerce, but the deliveries are neither as efficient nor as ecological as might be expected. With this basic idea, the Madrid-based Citibox was born, a pioneering technological platform because it allows users to receive packages in their own home, through smart mailboxes, always ensuring delivery on the first attempt. These mailboxes connect neighbors residing in the building with stores and courier companies. As? Through an application and completely free of charge.
There are, therefore, three major beneficiaries: transport companies, since they can be much more efficient; the users, since they always receive the packages the first time; and cities, by reducing their carbon footprint by more than half.
Taking into account that water is an increasingly precious resource and its importance for agriculture, Arada, an engineering company born in Lorca and several partners, came together to launch H2OLock. The objective of the project was to design a solution that would reduce the evaporation that occurs in the water ponds by up to 85%, prevent the growth of algae, allow energy self-sufficiency and that all of this could be applied in large ponds intended for irrigation.
For farmers it means a drastic change, since they will be able to have water for longer or use the surplus to expand their production. In addition, this will translate into cost savings of 30% by reducing the energy consumption of your facilities.
Electricity is a basic necessity to which, however, more than 675 million people do not have access according to the World Bank. Aware of this, the La Mancha company GFM Fotovoltaica put its ingenuity and creativity to develop SuninBox, a portable magic box that is capable of quickly transforming solar energy into electricity, in addition to storing it. Magic? No, innovation, like the one that allowed SuninBox to be improved by incorporating a component that allows generating drinking water from air.
Thus, they have managed to guarantee access to both resources at border posts, in military camps or in hospitals located in isolated areas. They have also allowed the agricultural sector to do without generators that traditionally run on fuels such as diesel or diesel.
