WeMed Mediterranean Sustainability Award 2024

WeMed, the Mediterranean Sustainability Award, is a flagship Initiative of the Mediterranean strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD), a strategic guiding document adopted by the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention, for all stakeholders to translate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the regional, sub-regional and national levels of the Mediterranean region.

In this fourth edition, organized by MedWaves, the award recognizes success stories of sustainable businesses in the Blue Economy sector. This edition is supported by the EU-funded SwitchMed Programme. The project aims at enhancing scalable, replicable and inclusive circular economy ventures in the Mediterranean by developing an ecosystem of business support, innovation, and technology transfer that will lead to sustainable job creation for youth and women.

Aims

• The aims of the current edition are to:
  • Recognise successful cases of start-ups with sustainable business models within the Blue Economy in the Mediterranean region.
  • Inspire other start-ups/entrepreneurs contributing to the Blue Economy in the Mediterranean Region into integrating environmental and social innovations within their business models.
  • Emphasize the need to promote transformations on the governmental and political level in the Mediterranean area to support the entrepreneurial network in adopting environmental and social improvements in the marine ecosystems.
• The award will also offer visibility to the contributions on behalf of ventures within the Blue and Circular Economy to the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) in the Mediterranean region.

Categories

• Early-Stage Entrepreneurs Category
  • Entrepreneurs or start-ups with less than 2 years of work that have integrated environmental and social values into a validated business model and prototype with a promising economic outlook in the Blue Economy sector. Companies may be generating early-stage revenue but might be not profitable yet.
• Growth Entrepreneurs Category
  • Entrepreneurs or start-ups with from 2 to 10 years of work that have integrated environmental and social values into a viable business model in the Blue Economy. The entity must have a validated business plan and marketed services/products (profit margins and growth trend).

Prizes

• 1st Gold Soft Landing services. Valued at 10.000 €.
• 2nd Silver Soft Landing services. Valued at 8.000 €.

Who can apply?

• In this edition, the WeMed Award is targeting early and growth stage sustainable ventures in the Blue Economy sector established in one of the Mediterranean eligible regions within the SwitchMed Programme:
  • Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia.
• Be a circular or sustainable start-up of the Blue Economy sector.
  • The sustainable Blue Economy framework encompasses various sectors, each playing a crucial role in promoting resource efficiency and waste reduction. The sectors identified for consideration in this edition include, but are not limited to:
    • Fisheries and Aquaculture
    • Maritime Transport and Logistics
    • Tourism and Hospitality
    • Coastal Infrastructure and Urban Development
    • Renewable Energy
    • Waste Management and Recycling
    • Biotechnology and Marine Bioproducts
    • Blue Tech and Innovation
• Be a corporate or cooperative entity, or a self-employed natural person, with a maximum of 250 employees or members. The joint participation of self-employed workers will also be accepted.

For more information, visit MedWaves.