22 February 2022
The "Power2Innovate" Call for Ideas 2022 has ended. It supports startups and aspiring entrepreneurs of Southern Italy who have innovative, sustainable and high potential business ideas. The initiative has been promoted by TotalEnergies Italy and The European House - Ambrosetti as part of the 2021-2022 programme of the Basilicata Think Tank.
As the second edition comes to an end, it encourages the dissemination of innovative and sustainable entrepreneurial ideas, to make a practical contribution to the growth of the Lucan territory, and foster good practices of open innovation and virtuous cross-contamination.
The Call for Ideas has collected applications from all Italian Regions, proposing solutions that could be applied in Basilicata, both from already established startups, researchers, and informal teams. In line with the spirit of raising attention to the enhancement and protection of the territory and with the principles of sustainability taken from the vision "Basilicata: energy for a sustainable future", outlined in the first edition of the initiative, Power2Innovate focused on the 4 areas identified in the Regional Strategy for the Environment and Energy: Circular Economy, Renewable Energy Sources, Hydrogen, and Water Protection.
The six best ideas, one more than expected due to equal merit, were selected by the Advisory Board of the Basilicata Think Tank composed of the Summits of TotalEnergies and The European House - Ambrosetti and members of the Scientific Committee composed of: Patrizia Lombardi (Deputy Rector, Politecnico di Torino; President, Network of Universities for Sustainable Development), Azzurra Rinaldi (Head of the School of Gender Economics; Senior Researcher and Professor of Economics, Economics of Emerging Countries and Tourism Economics; Head of the Degree Course on Tourism Economics, Università degli Studi di Roma Unitelma Sapienza), Gianni Riotta (Executive Vice President, Council for the United States and Italy; Pirelli Visiting Professor, Princeton University; Permanent Member, Council on Foreign Relations; Columnist, La Stampa) and Giorgio Ventre (Director, DIETI, University of Naples Federico II; Director, Developer Academy Apple).
The selected projects stood out because of the innovative nature of the idea, the level of detail of the project presented, the feasibility, the composition and skills of the team, and its scalability. In particular, the finalists are:
Deagle is an innovative start-up that owns the patent of SEM (Super Energy Mobile), a hybrid energy generator powered by renewable sources and totally transportable
Northern Light has designed rComposite, an innovative composite designed to facilitate a transition to a circular economy in the nautical industry through the recycling of end-of-life products and the use of natural fibers replacing glass
AGRIBIOSANA has developed a product for agricultural purposes that guarantees saving about 50% of irrigated water, controlling soil erosion, absorbing a greater amount of nutrients, and reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers
Green Greener develops biological phytostimulants optimizing the use of water and minimizing the impact on the environment
ATHENA Green Solutions has patented ArgiNaRe, a hybrid material based on natural clays for the recovery and environmental bioremediation of contaminated marine water and industrial areas affected by oil pollution and/or pollutants in general
Agricolus operates in the field of Smart Farming and provides cloud applications for precision agriculture, supporting the optimization of agronomic practices through upskilling, recurrent data collection and analysis.
The selected ideas will be officially presented at the Basilicata Think Tank Forum 2022 (25 February 2022, Palazzo Viceconte, Matera), where they will take part in a Pitch Competition. At the end of the day, they will be voted and the two winning projects will be awarded.
The Call for Ideas "Power2Innovate" was created within the Basilicata Think Tank to achieve territorial development through the ideas and the entrepreneurial drive of the talents from the territory itself. For this reason, the two winners will benefit from:
- access to the network and to the contents elaborated by Ambrosetti Club and to the digital meetings with the protagonists of the economic, social and political life at national and international level
- a 6-month entrepreneurial acceleration programme, aimed at the improvement of their business model, which has been designed and developed by The European House - Ambrosetti.
