Partnership between BRK Ambiental, Waterlution and CAESAR encourages the development of technologies and solutions for water and sanitation services
BRK Ambiental, private basic sanitation concessionaire, present in more than 100 Brazilian municipalities, in partnership with the Canadian NGO Waterlution and the CESAR innovation center, opens registrations for the Waterlution BRK Acelera Program, an initiative that supports startups and entrepreneurs in creating solutions for the basic sanitation sector.
Applications are open until November 14 via the site: https://materiais.cesar.org.br/brk-acelera. The objective of the project is to connect startups and entrepreneurs with mentors and experienced professionals in the sanitation sector. The proposal is to stimulate new ideas for the development of technological solutions capable of solving problems related to water and sewer services in Brazil.
To participate in the project, teams must be made up of at least two people. When registering, those interested in participating in Waterlution BRK Acelera should submit their project suggestions in the electronic form available on the program’s website.
From the applications, projects will be assessed based on team profile and availability, project membership, degree of feasibility of application, degree of impact, business model and management , solution maturity and alignment with Waterlution guidelines. These guidelines include facilitating and stimulating regional and global collaboration, expanding global knowledge mobilization on water / sanitation, and supporting the global community to progress towards the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations) related to sanitation, water security, climate and equity.
In total, six teams will be selected to participate in the program. The selected projects will be presented on November 24. After selection, over a period of approximately three months, participants will follow a series of online activities, broadcast live and focused on accelerating projects and validating ideas and solutions. The aim of the virtual meetings is to establish contacts with other entrepreneurs and experts in the sector, through individual and collective workshops and mentoring focused on professional and technical topics.
Promotion of innovation
From the meetings, depending on the feasibility of the actions, the projects will be assessed individually, and may benefit from financial support from the organizers of Waterlution BRK Acelera or be invited to partnership actions.
“We strongly value partnerships with startups in order to promote innovation in our operations, especially when they are linked to ESG practices, and we underline the opportunity to offer a complete and practical corporate vision to entrepreneurs, based on on our expertise as one of the leading sanitation companies in the country, ”says Carlos Almiro de Magalhães Melo, Head of Sustainability and Corporate Risk Management.
“During Waterlution’s five years of work in Brazil, we have experienced firsthand the incredible technical knowledge, innovative capacity and commitment of the country’s young water and climate leaders at the forefront of change. Our long-standing partnership with BRK Ambiental and CESAR goes further with this new program and increases our ability to collaborate together, which will increase our collective impact and our solutions with the startups included in BRK Acelera ”, said Karen Kun, President and founder of Waterlution.
“The program works open innovation in practice, bringing together BRK, Waterlution, CESAR and startups to accelerate innovation opportunities, based on real societal challenges. In this way, we are expanding the opportunities for those who undertake in this field, who will see their projects supported by specialists in the most diverse fields of innovation, entrepreneurship and experts in the sector ”, underlines Renata Sellaro, project coordinator entrepreneurship at CESAR.
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