Hello,
We (Project Biovalor and the National Development Agency, ANDE) launched a program to accelerate business innovation through circular opportunities. It consists of a call to finance local entreprenuers and businesses that want to go more circular. In paralell we are hosting 5 events to map opportunities in different sectors of the economy. Look us up here: www.oportunidadescirculares.org
We Are
Project Biovalor is a project developed by the Uruguayan government, coordinated and executed by three ministries:
•Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, through the National Directorate of Energy, the country agency in charge of the implementation;
• Ministry of Housing, Land Management and Environment through the National Directorate for the Environment;
• Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries.
It is funded jointly by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and public and private organizations. The project’s Implementing Agency is the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
It is a four-year project whose main objective is the transformation of waste originating from agroindustry and small communities into energy and/or byproducts, in order to develop a sustainable, low-emission system (with the aim of reducing Greenhouse Gases – GHGs) through the development and transfer of appropriate technologies.
The main objective of this project is to transform the different kinds of waste generated in farm activities, in the agro-industry production chains and small communities in Uruguay into various types of energy and/or other byproducts with the aim of reducing GHG emissions, while contributing to the development of a low carbon sustainable production model supported by an adequate technology development and transfer.
We Will
After the hugely successful 2017 Circular Economy Forum (FEC) in Montevideo, Uruguay - 2018 is looking bright and inspiring for entrepreneurs in circular economy (CE) in Uruguay as the country opens a year-long initiative to analyze circular opportunities.
On April 18th, over 250 individuals from the business and government ecosystems came together at Edificio Mercosur to celebrate the announcement of a new program to accelerate business innovation through circular opportunities. The program is spearheaded by BIOVALOR and ANDE (The National Development Agency) with the support of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), Ministry of Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment (MVOTMA) and Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fishery (MGAP) alongside support funding by Global Environment Fund (GEF) and UNIDO.
The objective of the program Oportunidades Circulares is to identify opportunities and strategies for entrepreneurs and SMEs belonging to selected value chains, to develop profitable, replicable and associative businesses (productive symbiosis) within the framework of the circular economy.
The program selected 5 productive chains to start exploring options within the framework of the circular economy with each having a dedicated slot in the 2018 Program to discuss its uniqueness and symbiosis within different sectors:
Food Waste, Tanneries, Plastics, Construction, Viticulture
The program is divided in two phases, one of inspiration (blue) May through August 2018 and one of idea selection, prototyping and project implementation (orange) from November to January 2019.
Entrepreneurs who participate in the program will be supported by Socialab who have vast experience supporting early stage entrepreneurs incubating ideas with high impact in Uruguay. In addition, the program also includes the leadership of 3Vectores, a B Corporation focused on projects of triple impact (people, planet and profit) which helped design the program format and will be facilitating workshops contributing their CE expertise to the design of ideas.
MarĂa JosĂ© Gonzalez, Coordinator of BIOVALOR, expressed the immense interest in circular economy after the Circular Economy Forum in 2017 and the importance of bringing concrete pathways to convert inspiration into prototype of ideas. “We are really looking forward to seeing companies engage in a space that encourages them to explore the symbiotic nature of the problems through a systems thinking lens”.
The are over 500,000 USD in funding to support the idea generation by SMEs as the implementation of circular projects will be co-financed in a non-reimbursable manner.
The maximum amount to be granted per project, as well as the percentage of co-financing of each project, will depend on how the company applies either individually or in a Network of companies where at least 50% of the participants belong to the category MSMEs.
All information regarding the Oportunidades Circulares is available on the program website. (Unfortunately only in spanish!)
Date & Location
3rd Circular Inspiration Event: Plastics: 6th of June in LATU Av. Italia 6201, 11500 Montevideo. Specific hours still to be defined.
Program
Agenda still in the making - Details soon! We will have experts in bioplastics and plastics recycling, representatives of the national plastics industry and startups to get inspired.
Contact
oportunidadescirculares@ande.org.uy
biovalor@miem.gub.uy