A new online network invites innovators,
startups, companies and others to
collaborate on solutions for some of the
world’s greatest challenges. The first theme
is water scarcity, and a call from UNICEF is
among the first tasks. By Daniel Cardinali
he UN’s 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)
are a roadmap for sustainable
development, covering the social,
economic and environmental challenges
which face the world today. They are
ambitious and important goals. From
tackling the problem of clean drinking
water to developing sustainable
healthcare solutions for everyone, biotech
has the potential to make
a real impact. But where
do we start? The SDGs are
too complex to be solved
by any one individual
or organisation. The
consensus is that we must
collaborate to solve these
challenges. We need
collaboration to bring fresh ideas and
new perspectives. Working with people
from diferent disciplines leads to new
ways of thinking, better solutions and
faster progress.
HelloScience, an open innovation
community created by Novozymes,
aims to address exactly this. It
provides an online network for
researchers, entrepreneurs, NGOs,
companies and startups to collaborate
in tackling the SDGs together. The
driving force is the ambition to
transform our world for the better.
HelloScience is our attempt to fnd new
and unlikely partnerships by empowering
startups and researchers to develop their
technologies and applications faster.
Everyone is welcome.
Biotechs urged to tackle
global challenges
Everybody with an interest can
suggest ideas on the HelloScience
platform (helloscience.io). By
posting ideas or solutions to a
challenge, you gain access to
a network of researchers and
innovators to collaborate with.
Novozymes will give
enzyme and microorganism
samples to the most promising
ideas and will also provide access to
industry and investment experts.
HelloScience defnes diferent
themes for collaboration. The frst
theme is water, inspired
by the sixth SDG: clean water
and sanitation.
Currently the platform has fve
challenges related to the theme:
innovation for better fltering,
reduction of sludge, recovery of
phosphates in waste, an open
challenge on clean water and a
challenge from UNICEF to develop
a device to aid in the detection of
E. coli bacteria in water.
So far, six solutions posted on
HelloScience are being developed
through collaboration with
Novozymes. One example is an
innovative and sustainable way to
reduce sludge. The solution consists
of using enzymes to treat sludge
waste. The byproducts are water and
a solid biopellet, which can be used
to generate energy.
The biopellet solution comes
from an Argentinian biotech
company, which specialises in
biomining. Other examples of
successful solutions come from
a life science company in India, a
nanotechnology startup from
the Netherlands and a lecturer
from the University of
Queensland in Australia.
The challenges will run for a
specifc time, and new SDG themes
will be added soon.
Please go to HelloScience.io and
join us in solving some of the
world’s greatest challenges.
Daniel Cardinali is Head of
HelloScience at Novozymes
How
it works
Daniel
Cardinali