Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1342444
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2021 14 COMMERCIAL Horizon Europe Malta launch event and Horizon 2020 Awards ceremony: celebrating R&I in Malta ON the 17th of February, the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) in conjunc- tion with the European Com- mission, organised a live online event to officially launch Hori- zon Europe in Malta, the largest Research and Innovation (R&I) programme in Europe. Hon. Dr Owen Bonnici, Min- ister for Research, Innovation and Co-ordination of Post Covid-19 Strategy and Dr Jef- frey Pullicino Orlando, the Ex- ecutive Chairman for MCST opened the event, with the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel providing a video ad- dress marking the start of the Horizon Europe programme in 2021. Minister Bonnici said that such importance to R&I is also being echoed at national lev- el through various decisions which were taken, including the creation of a new Min- istry dedicated to Research and Innovation, the increase in the budget of the national Research and Innovation pro- gramme managed by MCST, and the investment in Euro- pean partnerships and other national schemes managed by MCST aimed at increasing the participation of Maltese enti- ties in Horizon Europe. "The active participation of Maltese entities and research- ers in the EU R&I programme will result in the creation of markets and jobs in Malta. Maltese participation will also attract the best talents to stay in Malta and others to come to Malta, whether as individual researchers or larger compa- nies, to set up their Research, Development and Innovation Departments here," said Min- ister Bonnici. Dr Pullicino Orlando said that "Malta's participation has increased over the years" which indicates that the importance of R&I is being recognised in Mal- ta. Succeeding Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe will set out to become the most ambitious R&I programme brought for- ward by the EU with a budget of 95.5 billion Euro. Ms Signe Ratso, Deputy Director for R&I at the European Commission, provided an overview of the Horizon Europe programme, outlining the three main pil- lars: Excellent Science, Global challenges and European In- dustrial Competitiveness, and Innovative Europe. The pro- gramme, as outlined by Ms Ratso aims to promote excel- lence, provide valuable support to top researchers, and help innovators drive the system- atic changes needed to ensure a green, healthy, and resilient Europe. New instruments, such as Missions and Partnerships and the services of the National Contact Points (NCPs) were al- so presented during the event. NCPs can assist Maltese re- searchers and entities that are interested in participating in the new programme. Alongside the launch of Hori- zon Europe, the winners of the Horizon 2020 Malta Awards were announced, recognising the efforts of Maltese benefi- ciaries that successfully par- ticipated in research and in- novation projects within the previous R&I programme, Ho- rizon 2020. The award for Best Innovative SME was awarded to BrianTrip, whilst the award for Best Impact on Health, Se- curity or Smart Mobility Award was awarded to the company AcrossLimits for the project Bio2Excel Centre of Excellence for Computational Biomolecu- lar Research. The Blue Award, awarding projects that were impactful in the field of marine sciences was awarded to the project Venture by Naval Ar- chitecture Services, whilst the Green Award was given to the project SIM4Nexus by Epsilon Malta for its impact on envi- ronmental sciences. The award for Best Promotion of STEM Award was awarded to ERA4S- TEM by Acrosslimits whilst the Best Technological Inno- vation Award was awarded to iFishIENCi by AquaBioTech Limited. Finally, Prof. Georgi- os N Yannakakis was awarded The Most Active Researcher Award for his success and ac- tive contribution to academic research within the Horizon 2020 programme in Malta. For more information on Ho- rizon Europe, the general pub- lic is invited to visit the web- page mcst.gov.mt the winners of the Horizon 2020 Malta Awards Maltco Lotteries to distribute 50,000 free hand sanitisers MALTCO Lotteries has proud- ly announced its commitment to help the community in pre- venting the spread of COVID-19 through the provision of 50,000 free 100ml Hand Sanitizers which will be distributed to players visiting its POS Network. Entitled "We are all in this, to- gether", this CSR promotion is being organised in collaboration with The BioArte company. During the press conference which was held on Thursday 18 February at Maltco's Head Offices in Iklin, Maltco Lotter- ies CEO Vasileios Kasiotakis expressed his gratitude to The BioArte company for their gen- erous offer. He also noted that the distri- bution of free Hand Sanitizers to all players of Maltco Lotter- ies during this difficult period, is in line with the company's vision and highlights one of the key pillars of the company – CARE. "Maltco has been amongst the first organisations to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, by supporting all the directives issued by the health authorities and has put into place copious measures aimed to ensure the safety of play- ers, employees and its retailers commented Maltco Lotteries CEO Vasileios Kasiotakis. Each Maltco Agent will be al- located an equal fixed amount of free Hand Sanitizers which they will be able to distribute amongst their players. This initiative will commence on Wednesday 24 February and will remain active until stock lasts. Christian Duchow Chair- man of The BioArte company and Dr. Manuele Biazzo CEO of BioArte, who have also ad- dressed the media present said that the company is focusing all its activities to fight against COVID-19, to the benefit of all Maltese. Apart from this col- laboration with the Maltese National Lottery Operator to locally distribute free sani- tizers, the company has also embarked on an ambitious in- itiative to perform research projects in collaboration with prominent medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies in Italy. The formula in these hand sanitizers is in accordance with recommendations set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Certified by the Maltese Health Authorities. Customers benefitting from this promotion will be request- ed to fill in a form with their basic personal details prior to receiving their free hand sani- tizer. Each customer will be el- igible to collect one hand san- itiser. Customer data will be with- held by the company for a limited time period and will be solely used to ascertain the validity of stock consumption. This initiative will commence on 24 February and will remain active until stock lasts