Frameworks that outline how a business creates, delivers, and captures value, including revenue generation and cost structures that are aligned to environmental best practices.
Detailed documents that define a business’s objectives, strategies, financial projections, and operational plans
Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Living Labs are collaborative spaces where stakeholders co-develop solutions through open innovation, knowledge-sharing and experimentation.
The AQUALOOPS4MED project aims to establish an interregional network to promote efficient and sustainable water management, focusing on the agrifood industry. By transitioning to a circular economy, the project seeks to enhance resource efficiency and ensure long-term economic sustainability.
AQUALOOPS4MED involves collaboration between four regions: Catalonia (Spain), Basilicata (Italy), and Attica and Thessaly (Greece), which share complementary Smart Specialization Strategies (S3) priorities. The project emphasizes supporting less developed regions by investing in the demonstration, scaling up, and commercialization of innovative solutions from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It aims to facilitate entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer across the quadruple helix, involving academia, industry, government, and civil society. SMEs will be directly involved in demonstrating technologies at advanced readiness levels and will receive support through cascade funding to develop 40-60 subprojects related to sustainable water management.
The project supports interregional cooperation and innovation investments through four main vectors.
A) Demonstration of technologies for water reclamation and reuse at two demo sites in Basilicata and Thessaly, fostering collaborative efforts.
B) The support of SMEs through a FSTP scheme for developing innovative projects.
C) Improvement of regional innovation ecosystems by boosting interregional investments through quadruple-helix collaboration, creating a platform for private investments, and analyzing relevant policies at regional, national, and EU levels.
D) Assessing the potential to replicate successful initiatives in other EU regions, aiming to foster efficient water management practices, encourage innovation, and enhance economic resilience in the Mediterranean region.
WE&B is leading WP4 on the Interregional Investment and Business Innovation through Smart Specialisation. The team will undertake a Stakeholder Analysis and Network Mapping for Sustainable Water Management in order to connect the quadruple helix stakeholders to establish efficient and sustainable water management practices across the Mediterranean region through interregional investments.
WE&B will also lead the creation of an Interregional Innovative Ecosystem Platform for Green Tech Investment Funds that will mobilise private investment in green tech funds and driving sustainable innovation in water management for the agrifood sector across the Mediterranean.
Furthermore, the WE&B team will Develop a Policy Cohesion Framework to ensure the alignment of regional policies with EU priorities, fostering cohesion and collaboration across regions within the sustainable water management sector.
