The SwitchMed programme will be at Ecomondo this year through the organization of its flagship event, the SwitchMed Connect, which will take place on 9-10 November 2022 at Rimini Expo Centre, Italy. This key event will conclude with the #EYESONBLUE award ceremony. Ecomondo, organised by the Italian Exhibition Group, is the leading trade show for green technologies in the Mediterranean basin

SwitchMed Connect is gathering Mediterranean stakeholders to build synergies, exchange knowledge, and scale up eco and social innovations. It hosts leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, industry agents, initiatives, change agents, policy and financial institutions working on applications of productive, circular and sharing economies in the Mediterranean. Last year, a hybrid version of the event was organized both online and in Barcelona. This new edition is the first in-person happening of phase II of the SwitchMed programme (2019-2023).

For the first time, SwitchMed Connect is organized in Italy, within the framework of Ecomondo. The objective of the event is to facilitate the uptake of green and circular economy best practices, by sharing knowledge and connecting relevant ecosystem stakeholders.

SwitchMed Connect will conclude with the #EYESONBLUE award ceremony on the 10^th of November in Ecomondo. This competition, jointly organized by the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), EU Neighbours South, and the SwitchMed programme, aimed at selecting the best 3 Blue entrepreneurs whose projects focus on water or the Blue Economy in 8 countries of the Southern Mediterranean region: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. For this, a call for applications was launched on the occasion of the World Ocean Day and entrepreneurs were invited to send their applications. #EYESONBLUE is a unique opportunity to showcase innovative projects and Entrepreneurs of the water sector, including Blue Economy, to highlight the urgency of dealing with water-related challenges and encourage citizens of the region to find innovative solutions that deal with the issue. The winners will be revealed during the award ceremony.

Blue Economy is key to the SwitchMed programme which is promoting the integration of circular economy practices within this sector through the different activities it is implementing. In addition to the #EYESONBLUE campaign, SwitchMed Connect will introduce its action in the field of Blue Economy during the thematic conference “SwitchMed: sustainable and circular fish food systems for a Blue Economy in the Mediterranean” on day 2 of the event. The other conferences will be focusing on diverse and transversal topics related to the textile and fashion industry, access to sustainable finance, circularity in plastics and open-eco innovation.

Discover the agenda and speakers on the dedicated website: https://switchmedconnect.com/