NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Programme 2014 - 2020 Mediterranean Sea Basin ENI CBC

Date of latest update: 2024-03-25

Description

Description (EN):

NEX-LABS targeted territories, characterized by water scarcity and both an irregular rainfall and population distribution, reflect agriculture as largest user of water (70-90%) while future global warming projections (≈2ºC) are expected to cause a decrease in summer precipitation (-10/-30%), threatening water availability (-2/-15%) and agricultural productivity (-12/-40%). The latent conflict between energy efficiency (≈60%) and water production is also increasing energy footprint/m3 of water used to produce food. The predicted shortfalls in Water/Energy/Food (WEF) require a NEXUS approach, which means an integrated management and governance of these natural resources. In this context, the NEX-LABS project aims to support the implementation of clean technologies for sustainable and resilient growth of agri-food sector production based on a more efficient use of energy (renewable/solar solutions) and water (wastewater treatment, water harvesting or reuse solutions) in Mediterranean Partner Countries region thanks to the contribution of ICT such as blockchain technology, Internet or the Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Big Data.

Achievements (EN):

Over the past three years, the NEX-LABS project launched a vast array of opportunities to support the growth of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean region, specifically targeting the sustainability of our Water, Energy, and Food ecosystem. The project, which is funded by the European Union under the ENI CBC MED program, has come to its conclusion and has achieved the envisioned cross-border cooperation between public and private sectors and an array of recommendations to ensure our common future. Governments, research institutions, businesses, startups, incubators, accelerators have come together from Italy, Lebanon, Tunisia, Cyprus, Spain, Egypt, and Jordan and created a network of innovation labs to provide support, training, and mentorship to young entrepreneurs and co-create and assess new products, services, or approaches in a real-world context. These labs have enabled the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and best practices between startups and established business capacity and relationships which are fundamental ingredients to build a Mediterranean Region which is resilient and has agency on its growth, development, competitiveness, and sustainability. The Mediterranean region is very diverse yet facing several common challenges such as reduced water and energy efficiency, looking into our future there will also be limited food production. The lack of infrastructure, technology, and human capital will impact our economy and our lives, whether rural or urban. Governments have all outlined a WEF sustainable development agenda aiming to accelerate innovation acquisition by research and development support and developing internal skills or financial resources to innovate small medium enterprises (SMEs), so not only through financial incentives, but also inclusive structural solutions. Working with a stakeholders’ systems approach, the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) aware of external and internal country-specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It was necessary for NEX-LABS MPCs to identify and publish WEF best practices settling the landscape for excellence to emerge. Another major achievement of NEX-LABS projects is that two cross border Nexus Driven Open Living Labs (NDOLLs) were established, one with the collaboration of iPark in Jordan called AQABA Water-Energy-Food Open Living Lab, and another with Berytech in Lebanon called NEX-LABS NEXUS Driven Open Living Lab. The NDOLL in Lebanon is located at Saint Joseph University Sciences & Technology Campus Dekwaneh in Beirut, while the NDOLL in Jordan is hosted at iPARK’s Aqaba incubator. The NDOLLs are meant for Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Researchers, Startups and SMEs, Students, Industry and private sector representatives, Academia and Research representatives, Citizens, NGOs. NDOLLs participants did and shall continue, provided further funding will be found, to: Find direct support, advice, network to develop and launch innovative products/services. Collaborate and build synergies with WEF-NEXUS Stakeholders working across disciplines. Contribute to the development of innovative and sustainable solutions to solve challenges faced in Jordan, Lebanon, and MENA Region. Empower the WEF-NEXUS local ecosystem by generating value throughout the innovation development process. The NDOLLs (Nexus Driven Open Living Labs) created with this project have helped to research evidence-based policy recommendations and to establish linkages between the various innovation players, as well as to facilitate idea generation, tailored training and coaching and summer schools. As a result, technological transfer, commercialization of research results and replication of experiences, is underway and useful for micro and small enterprises to grow in scope and scale. Moreover, the international consortium has delivered on its capacity and growth promise: 40 hours tailoring WEF innovation and entrepreneurship training to PA, SMEs, TTOs; A WEF nexus idea generation programme to 20 participants. A 5-day Med WEF Summer School to turn entrepreneurs into innovators. 3 WEF Nexus Innovation weeks with over 2300 participants and 160 side meetings. 10 WEF nexus conferences engaging 58 experts and 1000 participants. 70 vouchers and grants, amounting to an investment of €470,000, have been allocated for testing, innovation, incubation, or acceleration of Water-Energy-Food (WEF) solutions. Out of these, 46 beneficiaries of these vouchers were specifically from Lebanese and Jordanian researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups, covering aspects of commercialization, testing, innovation, incubation, and acceleration. Additionally, 28 participants across Italy, Egypt, Spain, and Cyprus were selected to benefit from innovation vouchers. 2 R2B2R missions, one to Tuscany (IT) and another to Catalonia (ES), engaging 20 individuals from southern Mediterranean countries, developing + 20 bilateral meetings and + 200 opportunities for collaboration, as a seeding approach that nurtures an ecosystem of WEF nexus specialists. Within its defined scope NEX-LABS has delivered a Nexus Joint Action Plan (NJAP) which is a policy-oriented outcome that drives management focus from inputs to outputs and boosts the achievements and results of the NDOLLs. It is initiated to address future WEF nexus challenges in the European Union Mediterranean Partnership Countries (EU-MPCs) through design thinking dynamics. The NJAP serves as a roadmap that facilitates countries in developing WEF-oriented NDOLLs and provides them support to overcome barriers during the implementation process. As outlined in the Nexus Joint Action Plan (NJAP), NEX-LABS project Mediterranean partner countries (MPCs) and Nexus National Task Force groups (NTFGs), highlight 8 priorities needing to be addressed through the NDOLL approach. Each priority has been divided in 4 categories: recommendation, action, outcomes, and associated KPIs. The 8 priorities can be summarized as follows: Reinforce cross-regional public-private partnerships (PPP) and technology alliances. Pursue cluster cooperation and agreements to share resources and best practices. Create policies and practices to retain talents and technological transfer to industry. Ensure continuity of current NDOLLS through improved allocation of EU funds, creation of national contact points, as well as effective communication of outputs and outcomes. Further academic collaboration, frameworks, and policies for Intellectual Property. Warrant Technology Transfer accessibility to a wide WEF impacted community. Coordinate the strategic WEF nexus Mediterranean ecosystem, engaging younger generations to participate in national and sectoral strategies, as well as smart specialization.

Website: http://www.enicbcmed.eu/projects/nex-labs

Expected Results (EN):

2 NEXUS-Driven Open Living Labs established. 4 business ideas benefiting from acceleration grants. 16 testing and 42 acceleration vouchers allocated. A summer school celebrated with the participation of 50 entrepreneurs. 6 spin-offs established with 6 co-patents registered. A job bank launched. 8 joint research contracts signed.

Expected Outputs (EN):

3.1 - Understanding external and internal context for better planning and decision making to create NDOLLs, 3.2 - Identification and Landscape analysis of NEXUS stakeholders' ecosystem, 3.3 - Scenarios for implementation of supporting strategies for NEXUS stakeholders' ecosystem, 3.4 - Creation of physical and virtual environments to match NEXUS innovation demand and offer, 4.1 - 12 Tailored training events for SMEs, public authorities, managers and relevant business users, 4.10 - NEXUS innovation prize, 4.2 - Scouting/coaching for researchers/entrepreneurs (EU-MPC) in open innovation processes facing NEXUS, 4.3 - NEXUS Ideas generation program for WEF+ICT entrepreneurs., 4.4 - Entrepreneurs summer school, 4.5 - WEF NEXUS circular conferences for the NEXUS stakeholders' ecosystem, 4.6 - NEXUS Innovation week thematic workshops, 4.7 - NEXUS Brokerage events, 4.8 - Entrepreneur's Corner Space, 4.9 - NEXUS research 2 business 2 research (R2B2R) fact finding missions, 5.1 - NEXUS testing vouchers, 5.2 - NEXUS innovation vouchers, 5.3 - NEXUS incubation vouchers, 5.4 - Acceleration grants to participate in exhibitions, fairs and pitching events, 6.1 - NEXUS Joint Action Plan for replication of NDOLLs and foster cross-border clustering and aggregation, 6.2 - NDOLLs Decision Making Toolbox (DMT), 6.3 - Platforms to support NDOLLs outputs capitalization, 6.4 - Interactions to build up effective synergies with relevant Mediterranean initiatives.

Thematic information

Water management Renewable energy

Thematic Objective: Support to education, research, technological development and innovation

Partners (11)

Lead Partner: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Department: CHEMISTRY

Address: CAMPUS UAB. 08193. CERDANYOLA DEL VALLESBarcelona, Spain

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://WWW.UAB.ES

Total budget: EUR 566 087.03

ENI budget: EUR 509 478.33

اكاديمية البحث العلمي والتكنولوجيا

Name: اكاديمية البحث العلمي والتكنولوجيا

Department: Research & Innovation Management Department

Address: 101, El-Kasr El-Aini Street, Down TownCairo, Egypt

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://www.asrt.sci.eg/index.php

Total budget: EUR 415 317.29

ENI budget: EUR 373 785.56

الجامعة الأمركية في بيروت

Name: الجامعة الأمركية في بيروت

Department: N/A

Address: Bliss Street, P.O.BOX 11 0236, 11072020 Beirut, Lebanon

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://www.aub.edu.lb

Total budget: EUR 232 168.60

ENI budget: EUR 208 951.74

Berytech Foundation – مؤسسة بيريتك

Name: Berytech Foundation – مؤسسة بيريتك

Address: Damascus roadAchrafieh, Lebanon

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://www.berytech.org

Total budget: EUR 557 566.29

ENI budget: EUR 501 809.66

C.I.P Citizens In Power

Name: C.I.P Citizens In Power

Department: New Technologies

Address: Alexias 24, 3204 Anthoupoli, Cyprus

Legal status: n/a

Website: https://www.citizensinpower.org/

Total budget: EUR 144 546.30

ENI budget: EUR 130 091.67

Centro Servizi Promozionali per le Imprese – Azienda Speciale della Camera di Commercio di Cagliari

Name: Centro Servizi Promozionali per le Imprese – Azienda Speciale della Camera di Commercio di Cagliari

Department: N/A

Address: Viale Diaz, 221, 9126 Cagliari, Italy

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://www.csimprese.it

Total budget: EUR 241 878.85

ENI budget: EUR 217 690.97

غرفة التجارة والصناعة للوسط

Name: غرفة التجارة والصناعة للوسط

Department: International Department

Address: Chadly Khaznadar Street, 4000 Sousse, Tunisia

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://www.ccicentre.org.tn

Total budget: EUR 189 193.07

ENI budget: EUR 170 273.76

Innolabs srl

Name: Innolabs srl

Department: EU DEPARTMENT

Address: VIA AURELIO NICOLODI 43 IN 2, 57121 Livorno, Italy

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://WWW.INNO-LABS.EU

Total budget: EUR 217 013.15

ENI budget: EUR 195 311.84

Net7 Srl

Name: Net7 Srl

Department: N/A

Address: Via Arcangeli, 4Pisa, Italy

Legal status: n/a

Website: https://www.netseven.it/

Total budget: EUR 188 202.29

ENI budget: EUR 169 382.06

الجمعية العلمية الملكية

Name: الجمعية العلمية الملكية

Department: iPARK

Address: Royal Scientific Society, Aqaba Centre, P.O.Box 353Aqaba, Jordan

Legal status: n/a

Website: http://www.ipark.jo

Total budget: EUR 565 131.19

ENI budget: EUR 508 618.07

الصندوق الاردني الهاشمي للتنمية البشرية/ مركز الاميرة بسمه للتنمية العقبة

Name: الصندوق الاردني الهاشمي للتنمية البشرية/ مركز الاميرة بسمه للتنمية العقبة

Department: Poverty Reduction, Women's Rights, Youth Training and Development, Water Scarcity, Disability Services,and Refugees

Address: Al-Madina Al-Munawara St., Building 14 - PO BOX 5118, 11183 Amman, Jordan

Legal status: n/a

Website (not verified): http://www.johud.org

Total budget: EUR 82 881.13

ENI budget: EUR 74 593.02

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Academy of Scientific Research and Technology

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

American University of Beirut

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Berytech Foundation

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

C.I.P Citizens In Power

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Centre for promotional services to enterprises – Special Agency of Cagliari Chamber of Commerce

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Center

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Innolabs srl

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Net7 Srl

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

Royal Scientific Society

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Partners and Projects info

The Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development /Princess Basma Community Development Centre Aqaba

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Project acronym: NEX-LABS

Project start date: 2020-09-03

Project end date: 2023-03-02

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 3 450 984.97

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 3 105 886.47

Co-financing sources:

ENPI/ENI/NDICI: Amount, EUR 3 105 886.47.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 Mediterranean Sea Basin ENI CBC

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2024-02-09

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

80 / 80 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

610 / 610 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://www.enicbcmed.eu), or a website directly linked from it, on 2024-02-28. Fields project name (from 3 projects) translated from French into English using the European Commission's eTranslation machine translation service.

The projects which fields include an eTranslation English text are the ones with the following acronyms: RESMYLE, OENOMED and RE-MED.

Languages

Contact Form

NEXUS-DRIVEN OPEN LABS FOR COMPETITIVE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Description

Thematic information

Partners (11)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Disclaimer