On Thursday 24th October 2019, MIWA became one of three winners of the European Social Innovation Competition – a prestigious competition organized by the European Commission every year.
Despite of a big recognition from the great authorities (see this years jury), the prize also brings us € 50,000 for further development. We take the win as a beautiful culmination of five years of intensive work. It is great that the price came right now when MIWA is entering the first stores of our partners in the Czech Republic and abroad. We will use the financial support mainly in the area of hardware production.
Our head manager Mirek Lizec and account manager Nikola Stiskálková were representing us in the competition.
543 European projects presenting their solutions to the issue of plastic waste entered the competition. The topic of this year was “Challenging Plastic Waste”. Apart from us, the winning trio also included the Portuguese innovation SpraySafe, which naturally extends the shelf life of food without the need for plastic foils, and the Spanish VEnvirotech with its bacterially produced bioplastic. The Austrian MTOP Educational Program, which helps young highly qualified refugees to enter the local labor market, received a special Impact Award.
It should be remembered that we are not celebrating success in a big competition for the first time. Since our founding in 2015, we have won several awards - among them the New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize, the E.ON Energy Globe and the SDGs Awards. However, this does not mean that we appreciate this prize all the less - on the contrary, we see it as a great honor and also a responsibility to implement our project as successfully as possible. And this is also starting to happen - you can already test our system in the Country Life store in Letna in Prague and by the end of this year we will be in the first stores in Germany and Switzerland.
Author: Lucie Jandová
