Two Climate-KIC Winners in Global Water Award in Dubai
Dubai, United Arab Emirates -Friday, April 28th 2017 – Source: ME NewsWire
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum honoured 10 winners from eight countries at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award cermony in Dubai, UAE, on 27 April 2017. Climate-KIC start-up Elemental Water Makers was chosen as Winner of the Innovative Projects. And the former Climate-KIC Innovation Project Memstill® won the first prize in the category ‘Innovative Research & Development – International Institutes’.
138 projects from 43 countries competed to find innovative solutions to the problem of water scarcity in the world. Valued at $1m, the award was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to encourage sustainable and innovative solutions to address water scarcity using solar power. The UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia) oversees the award under the umbrella of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI).
For the Innovative Projects Award – Small Projects, the Netherlands-based Elemental Water Makers won the first prize for a pure drinking water production using reverse osmosis by solar energy. While Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) project was about solar driven desalination technology based on TNO’s high efficiency membrane distillation (Memstill®) concept and won the organisation first prize in Innovative Research and Development Award (National and International institutions) category.
Sid Vollebregt, managing director of Elemental Water Makers, commented saying: ”This recognition by an international award as such buys us credibility to take our project to the next level. Water scarcity is a worldwide problem and we are happy to be contributing to finding solutions that benefit the whole humanity”.
Paul de Krom, CEO of TNO said: “We are extremely proud to be receiving this esteemed award that encourages innovation on a global level. We believe that innovation is the key for grand challenges in societies and our mission is to add value to welfare of societies and support governments and businesses to achieve this goal”.
