On July 28th, the idea AWASer – Advanced Water Analysis Services proposed by the LSRE-LCM team, whose members are the researchers João Sousa (Granted Researcher), Marta Oliveira Barbosa (PhD Student), Ana Rita Ribeiro (Post-doctoral Researcher), Adrián Silva (Associate Researcher) and Fernando Pereira (Associate Professor), was awarded with the second prize of the first edition of Business Ignition Programme (BIP). The objective of BIP organized by U.Porto Inovação, CIIMAR and INESC TEC was to provide participants with relevant skills in order to respond to market challenges and opportunities. During the 3 intense months, 10 BIP teams worked to create value propositions for their projects with the support of mentors, methodologies and resources that helped them transform innovative technologies into profitable business models.

The teams involved in this first edition of BIP presented publically their final Pitch and AWASer received the second prize: mentoring services and a business trip to the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival 2017. AWASer is a service developed by the LSRE-LCM team for public and private entities with the need to monitor water quality, providing an effective solution for water sampling in hard-to-reach areas.

BIP is a project funded by Northern 2020, Portugal 2020 and European Union and this first edition was supported by SONAE, Amadeu Dias Foundation and Santander Universities.

LSRE-LCM congratulates his researchers team for the recognition received at BIP and also all the other teams that have successfully overcome this challenge!

More information at official BIP website: https://bip.up.pt/2017/08/02/bip-final-pitch-day-28th-july-2017-photo-gallery/
Or at Notícias UP: https://noticias.up.pt/bioaqua-solutions-e-a-ideia-vencedora-do-business-ignition-programme/

Professor José Luís Figueiredo and Doctor Sónia Carabineiro are co-authors of a scientific publication that was featured as the cover of Chemistry - An Asian Journal.

More information about the cover picture can be found in:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asia.201700839/abstract

Full Paper reference:
J. Wang, L.M.D.R.S. Martins, A.P.C. Ribeiro, S.A.C. Carabineiro, J.L. Figueiredo, A.J.L. Pombeiro. Supported C-Scorpionate Vanadium(IV) Complexes as Reusable Catalysts for Xylene Oxidation. Chemistry - An Asian Journal, 12:1915-1919, 2017. DOI: 10.1002/asia.201700499