News and events published on the Eco-innovation Community Platform

• News - "EIB InnovFin programme invests in European wave energy technology”

Eco-innovative companies could benefit from an advisory service attached to the European Union's InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators initiative. The advisory service is targeted at large-scale projects that require a minimum of €15 million in research and innovation (R&I) investment, and that aim to tackle one of the seven societal challenges that have been identified as core to the EU Horizon 2020 research funding programme.

At the end of March 2016, Denmark's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the results of a study to define a methodology for identifying whether hazardous chemicals in products make it difficult to recycle those products (Kemiske stoffer i forbrugerprodukter, der kan hindre genanvendelse, ‘Chemical substances in consumer products that could prevent recycling’). The study was carried out as part of Denmark's Chemicals Initiatives 2014-2017, which is an agreement between all of Denmark's political parties to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals.
The Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan, published at the end of 2015, noted that “chemicals of concern can sometimes be found in recycling streams. Such substances can be costly to detect or remove, creating obstacles in particular for small recyclers”. In this context, the Danish EPA answered some questions about its study on hazardous chemicals that could prevent the recycling of consumer products, and what applications the research could have.

A European Commission-funded project has published a guide for city planners on how to tackle the four main water management issues that urban areas face: flooding, water scarcity, water conservation and water quality. The report, from the POWER project, analyses best practices in each of these areas through the experiences of four pilot cities: Leicester, Milton Keynes, Jerusalem and Sabadell. POWER (Political and sOcial awareness on Water EnviRonmental challenges) is a Horizon 2020 research project that started in December 2015 and will run until November 2019, with a budget of €3.75 million and partners from Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK.