The second edition of the SMEs support programme of the DIVA project, coordinated by INESC TEC’s Centre for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE), selected 68 innovative tech-based projects in the agro-food, environment and forestry sectors – among 255 proposals from six countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Ireland).
The selection comprehended 44 maturation projects (10 thousand euros), 10 small-scale demonstration projects (25 thousand euros), nine large-scale demonstration projects (60 thousand euros) and five internationalisation projects (30 thousand euros), for a total of 1 million and 380 thousand euros.
Among the selected projects, five are led by Portuguese SMEs and will receive a total of 85 thousand euros to put their ideas into practice. Two of said projects are developed in partnership with other Portuguese companies.
Among the selected applications is “IFFRIT”, led by the Portuguese Ingeniarius and developed in partnership with SFera Ultimate. This project uses robotics to reduce the accumulation of forest fuel mass, using technology to support the preservation of the forest landscape. “This project aims to show an advanced autonomous prototype for heavy tasks, with an undeniable positive impact on our society in terms of environmental sustainability, as it significantly reduces the potential of forest fires, thus saving natural resources and creating ecosystems resistant to climate change”, said Micael Couceiro, CEO of the company Ingeniarius.
The applications for this call took place between November 26, 2019 and January 31, 2020. Over the next 12 to 18 months, DIVA partners will be responsible for monitoring these projects and supporting the selected SMEs, seeking to ensure maximum effectiveness in the implementation and success in the accomplishment of the expected results.
The European project DIVA (boosting innovative Digitech Value chains for Agrofood, forestry and environment) aims to give SMEs the opportunity to present technological solutions in the agro-food, forestry and environment fields. The Institute for Systems and Computers Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) and the Tec Labs – Innovation Centre of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon are the entities responsible for the project’s coordination in Portugal. In addition to CITE, INESC TEC’s Centre for Enterprise Engineering and Management (CESE) and Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS) also participate in the project. DIVA is funded by the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – H2020 INNOSUP.
More information about the project at www.projectdiva.eu.
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