Responsible Innovators Award
About this good practice
The Emilia-Romagna Region has promoted an initiative to reward significant experiences about sustainable development and circular economy in the territory.
Resources needed
In the edition 2020 the regional fund for the development and implementation of the projects was € 90,000.00 , of which 50,000 for private entities. For each beneficiary the maximum amount of the contribution could not exceed € 5,000.00.
Evidence of success
It can be considered a successful experience by examining the growing number of candidate projects and awards awarded. In the first edition, 43 projects were nominated and the Region awarded 10 projects and 10 special mentions to good practice developed, while in the edition 2020 there were 145 project applications and 38 prizes were awarded.
In the 2020 report there are experiences of companies that have developed projects about the circular economy and the COVID19 resilience capacity.
Potential for learning or transfer
The responsible innovators award not only gives a prize to the most deserving projects, but also promotes the visibility of good practices in the area. This second aspect also reinforces the educational value of this experience, which becomes replicable and imitable for countless contexts.
In the edition 2020, the initiative has allowed to bring out worthy and replicable experiences related to circular economy or covid 19 resilience. By way of example, one of these is the experience of Staff Jersey, company belonging to the textile sector, has presented a project to convert its production to face the environmental impact due to the intensive use of masks due to the covid-19 epidemic. Thanks to research activities they want to develop a new generation of masks made with environmentally friendly and recycled materials that allows a reduction of environmental impact.