The winners of “European Sails 2022” have been announced: projects that are changing Lithuania | Business
October 27 For the 14th time, the Kaunas State Music Theater presented and evaluated the projects financed by EU funds, which bring the greatest value to the person, the country, and the state. The “European Sails” award for the best EU investment projects was organized by the Ministry of Finance.
The motto of this year’s event is “The road to freedom”, the Vice Minister of Finance Vaida Česnulevičiūtė, who gave the opening speech, mentioned the challenges that came along with it.
Moments of the event – in the gallery:
“When we started the path of an independent state more than 30 years ago, we had very few opportunities to invest in people, health, business, environment, we were uncompetitive, we did not have the necessary infrastructure. And here the European Union helped us a lot. Now Lithuania is a stronger, independent, open, secular and democratic state, whose prosperity is based on us, the citizens”, she said in a hall full of gathered guests.
According to the vice-minister, in the context of today’s challenges, it is gratifying to see the nominees of this year’s competition: “like the sails of a ship, they show the direction where the invested funds create the greatest added value for Lithuania and its people”.
After V. Česnulevičiūtė’s speech, the participants of the event are invited to participate in the contact fair and hear the presentation of projects on the topic of energy freedom, journalist and historian Robertas Petrauskas will also make a report.
During the evening part of the awards, statuettes were presented to the best implementers of EU investment projects in Lithuania in the categories of the 7th competition: For the most innovative solutions, For creating a sustainable environment, For investing in the school of the future, For efficiency in medicine, For investing in people, For creating community, For the most interesting small business projects. Among the announcement of the winners of different nominations, the most vivid scenes of the rock opera “1972” sounded.
List of European Sail 2022 winners:
For the most innovative solutions. This award draws attention to companies that implement new technologies in their operations, invest in processes and the development of new products and services.
A Delta Biosciences project to develop a next-generation integrated biotechnological research platform for significantly faster drug development. This is an extremely innovative and interdisciplinary pharmaceutical R&D process, which allows to check millions of chemical drug candidates a hundred times faster, to more efficiently optimize medical molecules with the greatest potential and previously best candidates for preclinical research.
For creating a sustainable environment. The category evaluates solutions that improve the quality of life and preserve the environment and good. The nomination is intended for projects, EU investments in the beautification of the public environment, infrastructure renewal, as well as renewable energy solutions and adaptation to the needs of modern people.
UAB “Elektrinio transporto sistemos” project “Establishment of the laboratory for the development of an electric city bus, creation of a prototype of a modular electric city bus and production of a trial batch” aims to create a prototype of a modular electric city bus and apply modular production of a trial batch of an electric city bus. The project is intended to create and commercialize the Lithuanian electric, the lightest on the market according to the DANCER medium bus.
For investing in the school of the future. Projects that created new tools for the educational process, implemented modern distance education systems, integrated STEAM activities into educational subjects, and solutions that promote creativity at school are evaluated.
The project “Equipping schools with natural and technological science tools” helped equip 690 Lithuanian schools with natural science and technology tools (STEAM) for grades 1-8. for the education of students. The Education Supply Center of the Ministry of Education and Science, together with its partners, established 7 regional STEAM centers, modern laboratories were installed, and training for methodologists working in the laboratories was organized.
For efficiency in medicine. Projects that can quickly change over time, proposed to improve technological solutions for medicine, complex health care services for families and society applied for the award.
A project aimed at the treatment of various human genetic diseases using gene therapy is being carried out at the Biotechnology Institute of the VU Life Sciences Center. Design a double-stranded DNA deficiency detection method for selecting the best (most efficient, accurate and safe) CRISPR-Cas9 nuclease variant.
For creating community. The nomination is intended for projects that successfully increased communication between residents, involved community members in the pursuit of common goals and active social life.
The project “Reducing the social exclusion of the elderly by organizing an employment day center” is being implemented by Public Enterprise “Homes for All”. The project aims to improve the health and well-being of seniors by connecting them with the services and activities provided during the project, and to create a connection with other people. In this way, the project solves complex physical health, psychological and social problems.
For the most interesting small business projects. This nomination is looking for non-traditional small business projects that create products, brands or services that have not been seen in the market before. Unlike the rest of the nominations, this one was also evaluated by “15min” readers – their votes were equivalent to the commission’s evaluations.
“MB Dok Inovacija” is an ongoing project, during which a smart device was developed to help solve the problem of protecting drivers and vehicles from problems with wild animals. The innovative R&D result created by Lithuanian scientists is an independent smart technology device, installed on existing road bollards, which is designed to protect drivers and animals from wild animals running onto the road. The tool helps to effectively reduce road traffic and the health of wild animals on main roads, as well as regional and country roads. The intelligent system can identify animals of various sizes, registering in case of device activation, accumulating and transmitting data on registered objects, registration time, frequency. The data is transferred to the Lithuanian Road Directorate for assessing the safety of road sections and to the environmental protection authorities in order to assess the movement of animals when crossing the roads.
For investing in people. Projects that used EU investments purposefully and efficiently to create social initiatives are nominated. For everything that increases the variety of human possibilities and improves the quality of his life.
Mindle is an emotional gym born out of the pandemic, offering employees a place to identify their emotional experiences and exercise their minds. Employees can also identify their emotions based on what matches their energy level and what brings them pleasure. Based on the collected anonymous data, the Mindletic team tries to predict the emotional balance and protect it from deterioration in the future.
Almost 10 project application evaluation and winner categories were selected by the evaluation committee consisting of experts and representatives of different fields of knowledge, public media and the academic world: Akvilė Žirgulevičiūtė-Juodienė, advisor of the Management and Control Systems Supervision Department of the Investment Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, Darius Vėbra, director of the company “Solarbank” , Telšiai vyr. architect prof. Algirdas Žebrauskas, journalist, editor of the “15min” business section Jurgita Šimelevičienė, historian, director of VMU Lyceum “Sokratus” Dr. Mindaugas Nefas, businessman Tomas Balžekas, journalist, TV presenter, author of historical books Robertas Petrauskas and Daiva Kubaitienė, Deputy Chief Physician of Vilnius District Central Polyclinic of VšĮ.