With this award, ICSuro wants to encourage the creation of companies and technical and business innovation in the cork sector.

Next Friday, September 30, the ceremony for the presentation of the Entrepreneurship Award - Business Idea with cork will take place at 11.30am in the Josep Irla auditorium of the Government Delegation of the Generalitat in Girona. This competition whose motto is "We are looking for *go up entrepreneurs Do you have an innovative project based on cork?” (*up: from the Latin, cork) has been established by the Institut Català del Suro, as part of its 25th anniversary, in order to motivate the creation of companies and innovation in the cork sector.

During the registration period for the contest that ended on June 30, 17 proposals were submitted, with projects or ideas that include the cork material: sustainable construction solutions, decorative objects with recycled cork elements, exclusive utensils for innovative chefs, educational toys made with local cork, urban and home furniture, nautical elements that integrate with the environment and mobile applications, among others.

The jury in charge of evaluating the projects presented and scoring the proposals, according to the criteria established in the competition rules, is chaired by the president of the ICSuro, Hble. Mrs. Meritxell Serret, Councilor of the Department of Agriculture and has both representatives of the national and international cork sector as well as experts in entrepreneurship and innovation; the entities that are members of the jury are theAsociación d'Empresaris Surers de Catalunya - AECORK, the FPdGi Young Entrepreneurs Chair of the UdG, the European Cork Confederation - CELIÈGE, theAgency for the Competitiveness of the Company - ACCIÓ, the General Directorate of Transfer and Agro-Food Innovation of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the own Catalan Institute of Cork - ICSuro.

The prize consists of the delivery of 2,000 euros in the form of a subsidy for the promotion of the activity carried out by the entrepreneur and/or the materialization of the business idea, 10 hours of mentoring by the FPdGi Young Entrepreneurs Chair of the UdG, 20 hours of technical assistance from the ICSuro laboratory, the Cork Center, to provide the necessary technical support for the new project and support in the dissemination and communication of the business idea or project.

This competition has the participation and support of the following institutions: Generalitat de Catalunya (Department of Business and Knowledge i Department of Agriculture), ACC1Ó, Asociación d'Empresaris Surers de Catalunya (AECORK), European Cork Confederation (CELIÈGE), FPdGi Young Entrepreneurs Chair at the University of Girona i Palafrugell Economic Promotion Institute (Palafrugell City Council).