TUSTI (located in Twice hub Catalyst on TU/e Campus) and Ranmarine, 2 Dutch innovative scale-ups, have been selected with their innovations for EIC Accelerator's Green Deal call 2019. They will thus jointly win support of €5.2 million, with the aim of scaling up the business and rolling out their innovative products in European or global markets.
In this special round, focused entirely on the Green Deal, a total of 2101 European applications were received, of which 122 entries came from the Netherlands. Of these, 5 Dutch SMEs advanced to the pitch round in Brussels. There they presented their company and innovation to a panel of scientists, investors and business people.
TUSTI and Ranmarine winners of Green Deal call
TUSTI developed a technology to clean and separate highly contaminated mixtures of plastics into different fractions. That technology has been continuously optimized and tested in the lab and in practice in recent years. This grant will allow them to scale up the technology so that by 2022 they can wash and separate 15,000 tons per year of currently non-recycled plastic packaging. These can then be used in high-value applications, such as bottles. Truly circular, in other words. This will make it possible to meet the European Commission's ambitious goals of recycling more and more plastic (packaging) waste, no matter how dirty it is.
Ranmarine's approach is to place a WasteShark system in a specific waste-rich area. In this area, a holistically networked swarm of WasteSharks must find and collect the waste and then deliver its "catch" to the SharkPod. When the 'sharks' are deployed in a known area, they go directly to the largest concentration of debris based on information gathered during previous missions. This approach increases the efficiency of the drones and allows existing and potential customers to become more efficient at collecting debris. Whether it is plastics and other non-biodegradable materials (solid waste), oils and chemicals (liquid waste), pest plants (noxious biomass) or a combination thereof.
See all winners on the European Commission website (English).
Support RFO
The Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) supported these companies with advice on submission, feedback on the proposals and honing and practicing the pitches. Dutch SMEs score well in the European innovation summit. Earlier this year 15 Dutch scale-ups were allowed to go to Brussels, 9 entrepreneurs were jointly awarded € 30 million.
TUSTI on support from RFO:
At an earlier stage, RFO already read along with the proposal and provided feedback, which really improved the proposal. In preparing the presentation and defense of the project for the EIC jury, RVO again came with constructive feedback, in a setting very similar to the 'real' presentation. A very nice addition and a fresh perspective on our intensive journey to win this grant.
Learn more
Horizon 2020 is the European Commission's program to stimulate European research and innovation. The Green Deal call within EIC Accelerator was a one-off. A new call will follow later this year, focused on Green Deal collaborative projects.
Learn more about Horizon 2020 EIC Accelerator or contact Team IRIS at RFO at email address teamiris@rvo.nl.
