FinCEAL Plus Africa and LAC at the BALEWARE Conference 2016
In December, FinCEAL Plus wound up the year by co-organizing the BALEWARE conference on Bridging Africa, Latin America and Europe on Water and Renewable Energies Applications in Arusha, Tanzania.
In December, FinCEAL Plus wound up the year by co-organizing the BALEWARE conference on Bridging Africa, Latin America and Europe on Water and Renewable Energies Applications in Arusha, Tanzania.
The event acted as a platform for launching research cooperation between the three regions in Water and Renewable Energy. 60 participants from different institutions and countries attended the two day event. FinCEAL Plus, in cooperation with RECP (Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme) organized a science and business slam for young scientists and entrepreneurs. 6 participants were selected from 16 applicants. Ahmed Abbas from SunCity, Egypt was the winner with his innovation on Mobile Solar Pump for small-holder farmers. By harnessing the power of the sun, the solar pump cuts down on the use of diesel and CO2. The technology can pump 60 m3/ hour and irrigate 1 acre of land for 6-8 hours/day. Read the story of SunCity here.
The project further supported the participation of two Finnish researchers from VTT - Kim Jansson, and the University of Jyväskylä - Elijah Ngumba. They presented on ‘Remanufacturing as a sustainable strategy for water purification and renewable energy equipment and distribution network maintenance and upgrading’ and ‘Occurrence and removal of pharmaceutical residues in Sub-Saharan Africa urban hydrological cycles’ respectively. One of the major outcomes of the conference was a commitment from the participants to strengthen the cooperation by organizing a summer school for PhD students from the three regions focusing on the themes of the conference. The next BALEWARE conference will be held in Latin America.