UK-wide competition to discover the brightest clean-tech talent.
Innovation Birmingham has hosted the UK heat of the European-wide CleanLaunchpad competition, where the eventual winners and two runners up will collectively receive €17,500 to develop their clean-tech products/services. The competition is one of the initiatives being run by Innovation Birmingham’s Climate-KIC team.
The competition entrants for the UK heat were located across the country. Cambridge-based bio-glue manufacturer Cambond has come out as the overall winner of CleanLaunchpad UK. The company, which makes adhesives from biomass feedstocks (including algae), using a low-carbon, cost effective process will now progress to the European-wide final in Valencia at the end of October.
Cambond will be joined by the UK joint runners-up; Derby-headquartered Adaptavate and London-headquartered Desolenator. Adaptavate has developed a natural compostable plasterboard, suitable for use on heritage buildings and traditional homes, while Desolenator has produced a solar-powered means of desalinating water.
CleanLaunchpad is Europe’s largest clean-tech business idea competition. The UK is one of 10 countries taking part, along with The Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Cyprus, Greece and Denmark. As well as the cash prize, the winner of the European final, which is held annually, will also receive a place on Climate-KIC’s Accelerator programme.
Catherine Shelley, Innovation Birmingham’s Climate KIC Programme Development and Delivery Officer said: “Many of the innovative concepts that came onto the CleanLaunchpad competition at the beginning of the process have made genuinely impressive progress with developing their products, plans for reaching the mass market and the quality of their pitching. We are confident that Cambond, Adaptavate and Desolenator will do the UK proud in the final, and I really hope that all entrants keep developing their ideas.”
CleanLaunchPad is a Climate Knowledge Innovation Community (Climate KIC) project, which Innovation Birmingham is a delivery partner for. Climate KIC is the EU’s main climate innovation initiative, and was one of the first Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in 2010. The EIT is the European Union body tasked with creating sustainable European growth and jobs while dealing with the global challenges of our time.
