Αn award ceremony, which took place at the central offices of the Bank of Cyprus on 18 February 2016, completed the first Cyprus INNEON eco-innovation awards competition. Mr Andreas Kythreotis, Head of European Relations and Products Department at the Bank of Cyprus honored the event in presenting the opening speech. The event featured also dynamic Keynotes from Dimis Michaelides, author of the book ‘Art of Innovation – Integrating Creativity in Organizations’ and Ms Katharina Krell, director of Greenovate! Europe, who addressed the challenges of creating a thriving eco-innovation culture, as well as presentations from the applicants.
The highlight of the event was the participation of a team of Falcon school students, who despite their young age and school responsibilities, have established their own company trading luxury soap products and are actively seeking funding to further their activities.
In representation of the Bank of Cyprus who sponsored the event, Mr Marios Skandalis, director of the group compliance division, presented the awards to the applicants.
INNEON which acts as a catalyst, accelerating the commercialization of eco-innovation and social innovation in Europe, has so far assessed in excess of 100 businesses, incorporated 26 businesses in its network and has secured funding for four of them. At present, the network includes a total of 26 investors. From Cyprus two businesses have been included in the network so far while three companies are in the process of preparing applications.
INNEON is co-funded by the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.
