The INCREDIBLE Open Innovation Challenge competition announces its winners!

One of the milestones that has marked our trajectory this year is the Open Innovation Challenge (OIC) competition, organised with the aim of gathering innovative business ideas that have the potential to increase the environmental, economic or social value of Mediterranean non-wood forest products (NWFP), or proposals to solve specific challenges for these products in the Mediterranean basin.

Among more than 30 applications received from 16 different countries, the INCREDIBLE project consortium selected the five business ideas judged as the most innovative, sound and interesting. We are thrilled to announce the winners of this Open Innovation Challenge call!

Competition organisers are very grateful to all the candidates for their participation in the call and for the high quality of the proposals we received. And the winners are…

• Cork iNet: Giuseppe Uras from Italy – Corkymat: an innovative technology for the creation of complex cork objects.
• Resins iNet: Mokhtar Baraket from Tunisia - Economic impact on the local population of resin extraction from Aleppo pine: increase income through improved exploitation techniques.
• Wild Nuts & Berries iNet: Álvaro León from Spain - Bellota y Raiz: explore new value chains for Oak nut based products.
• Aromatic & Medicinal Plants iNet: Jesús Fernández-Moya from Spain – Aromas del encinar: improve the consumer-experience by making them be a key participant in the sustainable management of forest with shrubby wild aromatic and medicinal plants.
• Wild Mushrooms & Truffles iNet: Richard Splivallo from Switzerland – Nectariss: an innovative technology to produce natural truffle flavour.

The winners will participate in the INCREDIBLE Acceleration Service in February 2020, which will provide them with the tools to improve their ideas and projects, and to get to know many stakeholders of the European NWFP network. If you want to know more about these innovative ideas, stay tuned to follow the participants and discover more about their projects!

This competition was open to everyone – individual, start-up or company – with an innovative idea to solve a problem or boost a NWFP value chain. Also of note, challenge organisers have not only looked for people with solutions: those who might be interested in the initiatives as mentor-supporters to boost the programme and help new ideas get off the ground are also welcome in this process. Sponsors and supporters will have the first opportunity to get in touch with winning innovators and will contribute to turning brilliant ideas into projects that could transform NWFP value chains.

Whether as an innovator or supporter, the OIC offers the opportunity to make a real change and enable NWFPs to fulfil their potential as a viable social and economic resource for the Mediterranean.