Winners of 5th edition of National Innovation Competition announced

Tunis: The award ceremony for the fifth edition of the National Innovation Competition was held in Tunis on Tuesday.The ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Fatima Thabet Chiboub, and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Moncef Boukthir.The competition, organised by the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (APII) since 2014, is part of the government's and all economic stakeholders' keenness to develop and popularise the culture of innovation in order to boost the national economy by promoting integration and partnership between the economy and scientific research.The prizes for the fifth edition were distributed as follows:- Technological innovation and digitisation1st prize: Enova Robotics for its autonomous solar panel-cleaning robot.2nd prize: Karem Chatti CEO of DeepVolt for a Location Intelligence Assistant3rd prize: Mehdi Romdhane Parkey Sarl- Tunis, for a Mobile car park payment platform- Green Innovations1st p rize: Ahmed Slim BOUAKEZ, WATER SEC - Tunis - Innovative IoT and AI solution to optimise water management2nd prize: Marwen Mokdad, Tunisia Baits - Bizerte _ POLYCHAETA: production of marine worms using a circular and ecological process3rd prize: Karim Fathallah, National Smart For Green Solutions and Applications - Bizerte for FireWatch, a fire protection solution for farms- Participatory Innovation1st prize: Hamza El Fil from the "Centre de Recherche et des Technologies des Eaux" for his success in treating and desalinating waste water2nd prize: Youkabed Zarrouk, National Institute of Agricultural Research, for agri-food valuation of oak fruits in human consumption3rd prize: Bassem Seddik, ViZmerald, for the Vizual Automatic Fabric Marking solution.The Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy highlighted the importance of this competition in creating dynamism and direct communication with the holders of innovation-based project ideas, as well as giving new impetus to private initiative.She str essed the need to engage in smart industry, which plays a key role in supporting entrepreneurship by creating a new generation of start-ups, as well as contributing to promoting social inclusion and creating new jobs for university graduates.For his part, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research said that the research and innovation system in Tunisia currently includes more than 20,000 researchers and that the Ministry funds 39 research centres and 577 research structures, including laboratories and units.He added that Tunisia occupies honourable positions at the global, continental and regional levels, which enabled it to become the only African and Arab country to obtain the status of partner country in the European research and innovation programme "Horizon 2020" and to join the most globally competitive framework programme "Horizon Europe 2021-2027" in 2022.European Union (EU) Ambassador to Tunisia, Marcus Cornaro, German Ambassador to Tunisia, Peter Prgel, and World Bank Resident Re presentative in Tunisia, Alexandre Arrobbio, attended the ceremony.Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse