WAITRO Innovation Award 2021 Winners Announced

The winners of the WAITRO Innovation Award (WIA) 2021 have been selected. Two project teams will be awarded US$25,000 each to kick-start their projects on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 – Zero Hunger.

The WAITRO Secretariat in consultation with the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) have selected the winning project teams taking into consideration the Impact, Feasibility, Level of Innovation and Technical Quality, Team Strength and International Collaboration.

SMARTinFOOD: Insect-based Food Sources to Supplement Nutrient Deficiencies in Vulnerable Areas

Circular bioeconomy is at the core of this project. The main idea of the project of LEITAT, FIIRO, CSIR and TISTR is applying technology on insect farming to convert it into food and feed products.

“A project like this is not an option, it’s an obligation.” – Julia García, Researcher at LEITAT

Strengthening Food Sustainability in Southeast Asia by Utilization of Local Tuber of Amorphophallus Muelleri Blume

Lack of not only volume but also the nutritional quality of food is essential to end hunger worldwide. Researchers from BRIN and TISTR joined to develop food with higher nutritional value than rice. Their project aims at developing a green extraction method for glucomannan flour from the local tuber Amorphophallus Muelleri Blume.

“We will have healthy food, healthy snack and benefit from it.” – Achmat Sarifudin, Researcher at RCAT-BRIN

Coming from different regions of the world, both winning teams demonstrate the benefits and potential of the collaboration across borders and boundaries among the WAITRO members.

SAIRA, WAITRO’s Open Innovation Platform, is the perfect platform to match people, ideas and collaboration needs. SAIRA enables innovators around the globe to find international partners and project opportunities. It’s free of charge and open to WAITRO members and non-WAITRO members.

www.saira.eco

As part of the WAITRO Innovation Ecosystem, the WIA was designed to inspire new ideas and foster new collaborations among all WAITRO members. In 2021, the WIA aimed to cooperate achieving the SDG2: Zero Hunger, with a special focus on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture.

Under the framework of the WIA 2021, the project teams participated in a professional pitch training to improve their proposals and presentation skills. It was also a chance to networking with WAITRO partners and outreaching their current projects to possible investors.

Congratulations to the winners and all the projects involved!  

“When you need to innovate, you need collaboration.” – Marissa Mayer