ICLEI South America and the Porto Alegre City Hall, through the Office of Innovation, opened on Thursday, 23 February, National call for the acceleration of five food systems startups. The second round of ICLEI Innovation Accelerator Programme The theme is “Sustainable Innovation for the Promotion of Resilient and Circular Food Systems in Porto Alegre and other cities in the Foodtech Alliance RS”.”.

Startups have until 20 March to register. through the online form for the acceleration, which will take place from 10 April to 31 July. As the work will be carried out virtually, those selected will be able to carry out their activities from anywhere in Brazil. The selection results will be announced during the South Summit, which takes place between 29 and 31 March, in Porto Alegre. The round will conclude at the beginning of August (3 or 4) with a Demo Day during the II ICLEI Brazil Regional Meeting in the South, which will also take place in Porto Alegre.

During the Official notice launch live stream, Rodrigo Perpétuo, Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America, highlighted that the acceleration aims to help entrepreneurs scale up by offering access to a network of mentors, partner executives, and other benefits.

During the live launch of the call for proposals, ICLEI South America's Executive Secretary, Rodrigo Perpétuo, highlighted that the acceleration programme aims to help entrepreneurs scale up by offering access to a network of mentors, partner executives, and other benefits. “ICLEI Innovation was born in 2018 from a challenge set by the British Government regarding how innovation was being addressed from the perspective of sustainability agendas. We found that the strategies had few points of convergence, and therefore, we sought alternatives to connect the agendas and encourage the creation of smart and sustainable cities based on 5 principles: information, transparency, dialogue, transversality, and ethics.”

The Secretary of Innovation for Porto Alegre, Luiz Carlos Pinto da Silva Filho, highlighted that the partnership with ICLEI for this acceleration round was born out of an eagerness to impact areas that had potential but had not yet been explored. “When we talk about a more sustainable tomorrow, topics like energy, water, and also food production come into play. This is the first initiative of the Foodtech Alliance, which emerges with the support of ICLEI, to foster solutions and funding for innovative and impactful initiatives.”

Also participating in the Launch live stream José Luiz Esteves da Fonseca, Executive Manager of Institutional Relations and Sustainability at MRV, a partner company of ICLEI in 2023; Mónica Guerra, Director of the Food for Tomorrow Institute; Rogério de Assis Brasil, from the Secretariat of Innovation, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul; Artur Roberto de Oliveira Gibbon, President of the Gaúcha Network of Innovation Environments (REGINP); Anderson Cardozo Paim, Manager of the Pulsar Incubator at the Innovation, Science and Technology Park of UFSM; Valmor Ziegler, coordinator of the Technological Institute for Food for Health (itt Nutrifor) at Unisinos; Marcus Seferin, Coordinator of the Cumbuca Food Hub at Tecnopuc; and Rodrigo Corradi, Deputy Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America.

The second round of ICLEI Innovation is supported by MRV, Foodtech Alliance RS, Pacto Alegre, Tecnopuc, Unisinos, Inovatec UFSM, Pulsar – UFSM Incubator, Rede Gaúcha de Ambientes de Inovação (Reginp), FAO, and Instituto Comida do Amanhã.

More about the Food Systems round
This round of the programme aims to foster the generation of technology applied to the demands and challenges of cities, with a focus on sustainable urban development, as well as offering circular solutions in the following areas:

– Innovation in the production and consumption of food in urban regions;

– Innovative systems and techniques for urban food production and distribution;

– Technologies for the sustainable and circular production of high-efficiency, low-impact (functional and synthetic) foods;

– More sustainable and circular forms of production, distribution, sales, consumption and alternatives;

– Platforms to support and/or promote regional tourism, which can connect local gastronomy with tourists, producers, and consumers, offering opportunities for job and income generation, based on the circular economy;

– Systems for mapping public policies and complementary related actions, promoting access to funding and partnership development;

– Technologies supporting the organic and sustainable production of food.;
– Real-time information systems for the producer.

Solutions that demonstrate a commitment to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN's 2030 Agenda will be preferentially selected for the programme.

Check the Details of the tender document here.

Cibele Carneiro