Final of the second wave of the GCIP Ukraine competition: Who won and how the best cleantech ideas were chosen
On November 16, the final of the second wave of the competition of innovative environmentally friendly projects GCIP Ukraine took place.
16 startup teams competed for the title of National Winner 2020 and Special Nominations in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
About the features of the second wave of the GCIP Ukraine Acceleration program
The second cleantech startup competition was announced before the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic. During the month we received 80 applications from Ukrainian startups. These are projects with innovative ideas and solutions for various industries, including: energy efficiency, waste management, ecology, resource efficiency, renewable energy sources, medical technologies.
The team of experts faced a difficult task – to select 20 teams that will move to the next stage of the program. In the selection they were guided by the following criteria:
- innovation and relevance of the idea
- elaboration of business aspects of the project
- the presence of a prototype or the degree of its implementation
The selection of semi-finalists and preparation for the Business Academy were in the period of quarantine restrictions. Therefore, we had to adapt to new conditions and realities, namely to move all activities within the Acceleration Program into online mode.
GCIP Ukraine Business Academy, or how to turn an idea into a successful business
After developing an innovative project, it must be commercialized and successfully brought to market. And here the knowledge of the basics of business plays an important role. That is why a significant part of the Project Acceleration program is training and mentoring.
GCIP Ukraine Business Academy is a unique opportunity for innovators and start-ups to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to implement their business ideas.
During the training, participants of the business academy receive information from international and Ukrainian trainers on a number of important topics for business development, such as business model development and business plan, market entry and global expansion, marketing strategy, protection of intellectual property rights, etc.
Participants also worked closely during the training on the development of their projects with mentors and professional experts. Startups had the opportunity to gain the necessary expertise to help them build business processes more effectively, understand how best to enter markets and how to present their product to a potential investor.
How to choose the winners
The GCIP Ukraine project gathered an expert jury, which included representatives of various organizations and institutions:
- Network for Global Innovation (NGIN, USA)
- Kaizen Institute Ukraine
- International Green Technologies & Investments Cente (IGTIC, Kazakhstan)
- Ukraine-Denmark Energy Center
- State Finance Institution for Innovations (SFII)
- State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine
- Council for Attracting Investments at the Rivne Regional State Administration
- Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
For two days, they evaluated the pitches of 16 teams, looking for a balance between the innovativeness of the solution and its relevance, assessing the chances of the project to be implemented and business prospects waiting for the idea in six months or a year.
And no matter how difficult it was for the judges to choose among the interesting innovative solutions, they still determined the winners.
MIR-technology that allows you to separate polymeric materials
The National Winner of the project was a team, which developed a technology to reduce the negative impact of polymers on the environment by sorting color mixtures of polymers for further processing.
Processing of polymer waste into new polymer materials and products is the most economically feasible way to use them. Because the recycling of polymer waste is about twice as energy-intensive as the production of primary polymers, it reduces the consumption of crude oil and reduces emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
SaveEcoBot is a social business that protects against the effects of polluted air
Second place in the SaveEcoBot project and their world’s first chatbot, which provides information about the state of the air not only through a map or application, but through all the most popular messengers.
Should a child walk in the yard? When is it better to ventilate? Is it safe to go for a run today? SaveEcoBot helps to respond and not harm your health.
The user network is constantly growing, as the team aggregates data from all available devices on the planet and stimulates the growth of super-affordable SaveEcoSensor sensors of its own production. Today, SaveEcoBot has 410,000 users in 5 countries and about 250 SaveEcoSensor sensors sold.
KRIOFOR is a comprehensive approach to reducing electricity consumption by refrigeration systems
Third place went to the KRIOFOR team, which developed technology to increase the productivity and energy efficiency of commercial and semi-industrial refrigeration systems.
This innovative development involves supercooling the liquid refrigerant using multilayer evaporative heat exchange panels OXYCOM. Thanks to the innovative material of the evaporating panels, a high degree of efficiency of the evaporating process is achieved, and the service life of the panels themselves is extended, which distinguishes the proposed technology from the existing ones.
As part of the second wave of the competition were determined the winners in the following categories: “Medicine for sustainable development”, “Best Female project”, “Technological breakthrough”, “Best project in the field of bioenergy”, “Clean Water”.
Geron Core – an “alive” heart
A project that won the hearts of all members of the jury and experts, winning two nominations at once – “Medicine for Sustainable Development” and “Best Women’s Project”.
This is a team of Ukrainian scientists and doctors working on an innovative development – GeronCore – a new generation of cardioimplants for children with congenital heart disease.
The goal of the GeronCore project is to create and implement “alive” implants that are grown from the child’s own cells. GeronCore will repair the damage and grow with the baby. The child will not need repeated operations and lifelong therapy, will grow up a healthy and full member of society.
Hydrodynamic cavitation technology of disinfection and wastewater treatment
The winner in the “Clean Water” nomination was the project to develop technology for hydrodynamic treatment and disinfection of municipal and livestock wastewater with the production of complex organic goods.
The project envisages the creation of a complex of equipment based on a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor, which receives sewage sludge at the inlet or livestock water, and at the outlet produces purified and disinfected water with maximum permissible concentrations of pollution according to sanitary norms and complex fertilizers (humus).
HydrateBiotech is an innovative gas hydrate technology for biomethane production
The nomination “The best project in the field of bioenergy” went to the project HydrateBiotech, which aims to improve the production of biomethane (methane content 92-95%) from raw biogas (content: methane35-60%, carbon dioxide- 40-65%, hydrogen sulfide impurities- 0, 2-2%).
The team of technology developers proposes to carry out complex purification of biogas from carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide impurities by using the improved innovative technology of gas hydration fractionation to increase the efficiency of biomethane production.
Creation of new energy sources and its wireless transmission
The nomination “Technological breakthrough” was awarded to the team of the NOVOTECH Foundation for the development of a unique method of transformation of the Earth’s electromagnetic field into environmentally friendly electricity, with its subsequent wireless transmission to consumers
Development of wireless power transmission technology using a completely new source of electricity – electricity generation from space, works on the basis of the formation of energy-closed resonant streams of electromagnetic energy, including streams of electromagnetic energy of the Earth. This technology allows you to get electricity from the environment in almost any part of the world.
We sincerely congratulate the winners and thank all the teams that took part in the program and, unfortunately, did not win. We are sure that this experience was useful for you and helped to better understand your project and look at its prospects.