Greenathon | Beyond Green Technologies

The Greenathon | Beyond Green Technologies, Green Innovation Competition for Environment and Climate Change, held by the General Secretariat for Natural Environment and Water, of the Ministry of Environment and Energy in collaboration with the Natural Environment and Climate Organization, was successfully completed on Sunday 12 September 2021 in the context of the 85th TIF.

From the 105 entries, 12 teams qualified in the final phase of the competition and presented their innovative ideas to win one of the 3 spots, winning cash prizes and the possibility of developing strategic partnerships through a technology incubation program by the EIT Raw Materials.

The contestants were invited to propose solutions utilizing both their know-how in the field of environment and the open databases of the Ministry’s addresses in the following 6 thematic sections:

Forest Protection and Rehabilitation
Water and Marine Life Management
Climate Change and Circular Economy
Energy
Urban Sustainability and Smart Green Cities
Mineral Raw Materials

The purpose of the competition was to create the appropriate infrastructure by the Greek State for the development and promotion of technological solutions to important environmental issues such as environmental protection and tackling the climate crisis. The goal of the Ministry of Environment and Energy is to give the opportunity to Greek start-ups but also to individuals (academics, researchers and students of Greek Universities or citizens) to present their green innovative ideas.

Of the 45 companies that passed to the second phase of the competition, the following 12 presented their proposals to the jury of the competition:

12GODS
Aristotle Space & Aeronautics Team (ASAT)
DeliEVry
DNASequence-SOIL
GX BLOCKS ENERGY SA
I-M-O-N: Is – Made – Of – Nature
Joule SA
NANOVIIS
OptiMEMS
Pragma-IoT
SMARTH-PROP
VERTLINER

The proposals were evaluated in terms of innovation, the problem they solve and the impact they create.

The Secretary General of Natural Environment and Water, Konstantinos Arabosis stated: “We must trust and cooperate with the young innovative researchers and entrepreneurs of our country to use Greek technologies that solve the environmental challenges we face. There are information systems and databases in the General Secretariat for Natural Environment and Water where information is collected and until now there was no way to utilize this data. Greenathon’s main goal is to see how we can use this data in a more rational way, to help us make important decisions in the field of environment. ”

An open discussion was held at the event on “How new technologies affect the environment. “Are green start-ups the solution to the climate crisis?” coordinated by Athena Dova, Co-founder & COO, Owiwi and their participants:

Dr. Vassilios Grigoriou, Director of the National Research Foundation (NRF)
Chairman of DS Antonis Politis, Director of Business Development, European Institute of Innovation & Technology Raw Materials
Mary Nikolaou, Head of Development, ETVA – INDUSTRY. – Beyond Circularity Program

Finally, an open discussion was held on “How Greece can become a green hub of new technologies in order to deal with the environmental crisis” with the participation of the Governor of the Recovery Fund Nikos Mantzoufas, the President of the National Center for Research and Technological Development (E. Κ.Ε.Τ.Α.) Dr. Dimitriou Tzovaras, while Christos Nikoloudis, Head of Research M.O.PA.A., NTUA & CEO, Mantis Business Innovation presented the results of the evaluation of the competition and explained the environmental data and insights that emerged from the competition.