Impact Innovators | Our world needs answers

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Europe responds to

global challenges

Accelerators redefine

future of food

MORE THAN A MAGAZINE

SPRING 2018

10

years of

European

Innovation

p8.

Our world

needs answers...

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Impact Innovators is a new platform dedicated to using

the power of communication to grow a culture of

awareness and a community of active pioneers from

across the quadruple helix committed to achieving

the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Susan Robertson, Co-Founder, Innovators Magazine

Europe will continue to play a leading role in

addressing many of the global challenges (SDGs).

The EU Top50 Startup competition launched at

the European Innovation Summit in 2017, for

example, supports impact innovators develop solutions

to these challenges. While the recent introduction of the multi-

billion euro VentureEU, a venture capital ‘fund-of-funds’ supported

by the European Commission, the European Investment Fund,

and international investment fund, Axon Partners Group – which

provided an award at EU Top50 – is another example of the joined

up thinking and strategic direction driving progress across the

continent. Efective communication is another important element in

accelerating the transition to a better and sustainable world for all –

and that is where Impact Innovators comes in.

Dr Roland Strauss, Managing Director, Knowledge 4 Innovation

I’m the latest addition to the Innovators team.

I have been selected to kick-start the ‘Impact

Comms’ programme, a new project letting

young professionals experience the power that

communication plays in accelerating progress.

The new Quarterly platform is not just about this magazine; social

media chats, events and networking sessions will be some of the other

tools we will use to generate the connections and exchange of ideas

that can trigger efective action from industry experts, leaders and

people that are passionate about our world, just like you and me.

Carlotta De Toni, Impact Comms Lead, Innovators Magazine

IN THIS ISSUE

CORE TEAM

Welcome

2 Communication as a game

changing tool

4 Q&A with UN SDG advocate,

Marc Buckley 

8 Landmark year for European

Innovation Summit

10 Young pioneers take

centre stage

12 Policy makers have a

clear mission

15 Accelerator seeks solutions to

zero hunger

18 Thomson Reuters focuses

on driving positive

societal impact

Editor | Iain Robertson

Partnerships | Susan Robertson

Digital | Ryan McFadyen

Design | Blair Carrick

News & Features | Carlotta De Toni

Operations | Gillian Greig

We accept no responsibility for any efects from errors or omissions. All material is copyright and reproduction is not permitted without express permission. All rights reserved.

Let’s build a better

world together

By Iain Robertson

This century is crying out for a world that can find solutions to

the challenges that threaten its very existence.

he rather long to do list currently

facing humanity is getting a little

longer every day, as the negative

impact of climate change, confict,

dwindling resources and rising populations

present difcult questions on how best to

move forward.

Finding the answers will require everyone

to contribute: individuals, businesses,

governments and academic institutions – and

in a collaborative way. Thankfully we have

the tools to accelerate the desired impact:

innovation and communication. Throw in a

handy international blueprint to guide our

actions: the 17 UN Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs) – and we have the means and

direction to build a better world.

Impact Innovators is here to harness

the power of communication to help

fast-track the journey towards that better

world. A new European-based platform,

it has been borne out of an ongoing

collaboration between Innovators Magazine

and Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) - an

organisation which promotes a culture of

innovation across the European Union.

The progress and impact of the European

Innovation Summit (EIS) and EU Top 50

Startup competition (EU50), two K4I-led

initiatives, will be communicated through

the platform.

“Communication is a key element

in accelerating the creation and adoption

of innovations that can overcome

society’s biggest challenges – and

deliver a sustainable future for all. The

European Innovation Summit and EU

Top50 competition are vehicles for

advancing and facilitating change driven

by science, new technologies, research

and innovation. And this new multi-

media quarterly platform complements

them with actionable messages,

discussions and debates that are

designed to mainstream transformative

ideas and opportunities,” said Dr

Roland Strauss, Managing Director

of Knowledge4Innovation.

Walking the talk

Impact Innovators will also showcase the

pioneering companies, programmes and

accelerators - like the EU Top50 - from

Europe and beyond, that are developing

and advancing the solutions and ideas

which will take us closer to realising the fair

and sustainable world we all want.

We’re going to go further than that

though, by taking storytelling full circle.

While examples of great breakthroughs can

undoubtedly provide inspiration; Impact

Innovators must sit at the nexus of innovation

and communication to function as one big

call to action – targeted at all groups.

This means that as well as having

articles on the innovators and innovations

positively transforming our world, the

quarterly magazine element – which

will include a fagship annual edition

distributed at the European Parliament

during EIS – will also link them to the SDGs

they are tackling, and most importantly,

highlight the corresponding programmes

Join the

conversation

Sign up for free regular updates

from Impact Innovators here.

It is where you’ll fnd all our latest

news; and information on our

plans for the platform’s inaugural

Impact Comms Forum, an event

that will examine the types of

communications that have the

greatest impact when it comes to

mainstreaming new ideas.

and initiatives you can join to help achieve

the related goals.

Between editions we’ll have a mix of

podcasts, Twitter chats, webinars and

events to maximise the game-changing

impact of communication; and we’ll raise

awareness across the quadruple helix, in

a way that’s deliberately cross-sectoral,

engaging and digestible.

People power

Our newly launched ‘Impact Comms

Programme’ is an integral part of what

we’re trying to do. It puts people at the

heart of the movement pushing for change.

The sponsored programme asks someone

with skills honed in an industry-specifc

discipline like biotech, food and drink or

clean energy, to report across sectors: to

learn about the growing and necessary

cooperation between them and to take new

communication skills into their future roles.

Carlotta De Toni, who works in food

innovation, is the frst to pilot this programme.

“I’m delighted to be the frst to join the

Impact Comms Programme, designed to let

students and professionals experience the

interconnections between sectors and the

key role communication plays in accelerating

progress and innovation,” Carlotta said.

For students taking industry-

focused uni courses (incl food/

drink; biotech; circular economy)

Apply comms and cross-sectoral

knowledge in future roles

Embark on

role focused on

sustainable and

disruptive innovation

aspects of these

industries - from an

SDG angle

Vlog personal

journey

Report cross-sectoral news and

opinions generated at events

Attend industry events, including

EU50; EIS; Seeds&Chips

Connecting communities

IMPACT

COMMUNICATIONS

PROGRAMME

6 month multi-media

comms role

Feeding knowledge

gained back to sector

Q&A with

Marc Buckley

Member of the Expert Network for the

World Economic Forum for Innovation,

Social Innovation, Climate Change,

Agriculture, Food and Beverage |

Innovation Special Adviser, Bayer Cares

Foundation | UN SDG Advocate

What does ‘impact

innovation’ mean to you?

Impact innovations disrupt, help or

solve more than a million people’s

problem or address a Global Grand

Challenge through meaningful impact to

society and markets. It means bringing

exponential impact innovations to solve

people and planetary problems in

exponential times.

How important is it to

align innovation and

the SDGs?

The world is moving away from

linear thinking and the silo

approach for solving problems. The SDGs

are a systemic approach and are all tied to

the basic needs of life especially those of

humanity. Let us say it this way - it is

harder not to align innovation with the

SDGs than it is to do so. If you do not see

our world from an ecocentric/ecosystem

view you are stuck in a linear/silo view

of the world.

This ‘business as usual’ model is ripe for

disruption in 70+ markets of the world.

Businesses that want to be around in

the future need to make sure they have

dynamic systems and business models,

and include the SDGs as the foundation

that provides the resilience to hold their

business together well beyond 2030.

How should we tackle

the SDGs?

It’s important we understand and

begin to see SDGs as a component of

a holistic system that will help us to

transition to a resilient, sustainable future.

The goals are the largest open

consultation ever held, and represent a

tremendous opportunity to again make

humanity aware of the Golden Rule as a

guiding principle. They were agreed by 196

countries at the 2015 UN Climate Change

Conference in Paris and aim to enable us to

meet the goal of the conference—known

as the Paris Agreement—to keep global

warming below 1.5 degrees by 2030. The

goals are: no poverty; zero hunger; good

health and well-being; quality education;

gender equality; clean water and sanitation;

afordable and clean energy; decent work

and economic growth; industry, innovation

and infrastructure; reduced inequalities;

sustainable cities and communities;

responsible consumption and production;

climate action; life below water; life on land;

peace, justice, and strong institutions; and

partnerships for the goals.

They are often depicted in a linear

poster, but that may disguise the fact that

they must be achieved within the safe

operating space of a resilient and stable

planet. We need to transition the planet

into a safe operating space. Looking at an

exponentially growing problem in a linear

way may not be the best way to understand

it. In the same way that Maslow’s hierarchy

of needs depicts our physiological needs,

it is helpful to look at the SDGs in the guise

of a wedding cake, as devised by Johan

Rockström, Executive Director of Stockholm

Resilience Centre, and Chairman of the

EAT Advisory Board, and Pavan Sukhdev,

Founder and CEO of Gist Advisory. The

base layer is the biosphere: life on land; life

below water; clean water and sanitation;

and climate action. The central layer

contains society: no poverty; sustainable

cities and communities; peace, justice, and

strong institutions; afordable and clean

energy; good health and well-being; quality

education; gender equality; and zero hunger.

The top layer is the economy: decent work

and economic growth; industry, innovation,

and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; and

responsible consumption and production.

And at the pinnacle is partnership to attain

the goals. This shows how all the SDGs

are directly or indirectly connected to

sustainable and healthy food. It is a paradigm

shift to see our planet as non-negotiable,

and not as a factor that limits prosperity,

transformation, and success. It proves that

food is a prerequisite for success. If we can

succeed with food, we will succeed for all

people and also for our planet.

More specifcally, the wedding cake shows

how global food reform can afect the whole

planet. The agriculture, food, and beverage

industries are the greatest strain on natural

resources and on the health and wellbeing

of everyone on Earth. The majority of the

food we grow frst goes to feed cars, then

animals, and lastly humanity. Our food is

creating a pandemic of obesity, diabetes,

asthma, heart, and other health problems.

The fossil fuels and refrigerants we use to

produce and transport these products are

a bigger emitter of greenhouse gasses than

the oil and gas industry, and are keeping that

industry in business. The packaging for food

is causing biodiversity loss in our oceans

and contamination on land. Globally, 30%

of all food produced is wasted or thrown

away before it is consumed. If we dispose of

this waste by burying it as landfll, it comes

back to bite us as methane, which is seventy

times more powerful at trapping heat than

carbon dioxide. Even if this waste is burned

or dumped into water, the long-term

results are not much better. There is a third

component to this. The Paris Agreement and

the SDGs are not the only things that are

required to keep global warming below 1.5

degrees by 2030. An economic and fnancial

fgure was agreed as well: to invest 90

trillion USD worldwide in sustainable

developments in infrastructure,

including private and public energy,

Marc

Buckley

Is Marc speaking near you?

May 7-10: Seeds&Chips Milan, Italy

May 9: FReSH: The 4.0 Food Economy @ Seeds & Chips by AHK German Italian

Chamber of Commerce Milan, Italy

May 16: LifeGate Food Business Bologna, Italy

May 24-25: Pioneers Vienna, Austria

May 30- June 3: Bayer Bejing Beijing, China

June 8: 60 years of Young, Sustainable and Quality Agriculture Giovani di

Confagricoltura – ANGA Rome, Italy

June 11-12: EAT Foundation, EAT Stockholm Food Forum 2018 Stockholm, Sweden

June 19-22: Tech Open Air Berlin, Germany

Check out www.marcbuckley.earth for more details and an updated list of events.

transport, and water by 2030. These

climate-friendly investments will

pay for themselves in the medium

to long-term, and will ensure that

we reach our 2030 goals. This fgure

represents six trillion USD per year

from 2015. We fell 700 billion USD

short of one trillion USD in the frst

year, and 200 billion USD short in

2016. However, we are on track to

break one trillion USD in 2017,

which will still leave us 17 trillion

USD behind in sustainable

developments for 2018.

As well as needing to understand

the SDGs properly, we need to put

the 90 trillion USD by 2030 into

perspective. The UN predicts that

there will be 8.5 billion people on

the planet by 2030; this represents

a spending of about 10,500

USD per person, or 882 USD per

person per month for one year. It

is also important to understand

the resources required to sustain

one human life to a normal life

expectancy in 2017. This has been

calculated at 1.6 global hectares (a

global hectare is an expression of

ecological footprint and biocapacity).

Since August 2, 2017 we have

been using 2.87 global hectares

per person, which represents a

defcit of 1.17 global hectares per

person. If we continue with business

as usual, human demand on the

Earth’s ecosystems is projected to

exceed what nature can regenerate

by about 75% by 2020. Similarly, if

we continue on our current path,

the Global Commission on the

Economy and Climate projects

that the world will invest 89 trillion

USD by 2030 regardless, most of

which will be spent on insurance and

emergency response—essentially

Band-Aids for high-carbon, climate-

damaging businesses. By investing the

90 trillion USD in resilient, sustainable

infrastructures and low-carbon,

renewable projects, we would have an

additional 14 trillion USD investment

with long-term returns that will support

8.5 billion people by 2030. It’s been

business as usual for too long. We need

to stop and reverse global warming

now. Businesses that are reducing their

carbon emission by 30% to 60% are

still doing harm, just less harm. If you’re

headed in the wrong direction, you

need to stop and turn around. Slowing

down just means you’re going slowly in

the wrong direction.

What steps can people

take to contribute to

the SDGs?

Have a voice and let social and

political leaders know how you feel.

Break old habits and adopt new ones with

your own personal SDG adoption of the

goals. Innovate within your own life to be

resilient and local with how you eat and

use resources. The reform is not with you

but the agriculture, food and beverage

producers. Currently we have little say in

how they produce. We can make our voice

heard and let them know they need to

change their ways to sustainable

production. There are many tools available

to help and make this easier. It starts with

a desire to change then shaping it into

new positive habits.

The top

three things

we can do

to stop and

reverse

global

warming are:

Global food

reform

Rethink

refrigerants

Empower

women and

girls

Marc Buckley

WE NEED

“If you want to be a startup billionaire, you have to solve a billion peoplesʻ problems”

Thimo V. Schmitt-Lord MBE, Head of Bayer Cares Foundations

We believe in the game changing power of innovation – we support pioneers who apply tech innovations to humanityʼs

biggest challenges around health and food.

In

2018

we

are scouting for

Startups,

Innovators,

and

Impact Innovations

particularly

focused

on

agriculture and food production for our seed funding programs and new book "The Beauty of Impact - Food". We are

searching for innovations that solve the food crisis and other global grand health-related challenges that we

can promote and fund to bring to the rising billions in need around the world.

Seeking funding yourself for a crazy “Innovation-4-Food” idea?

Impromptu Pitch May 10 from 2-4 pm @ AHK German Italian Chamber of Commerce Pavilion Bayer Booth

The next opportunity to meet the Foundations CEO Thimo V. Schmitt-Lord and UN SDG Advocate, Expert Network World

Economic Forum, Open Innovation Advisor and Speaker Marc Buckley is at Seeds & Chips May 7th-10th.

“If you want to be a startup billionaire, you have to solve a billion people’s problems”

Thimo V.Schmitt-Lord MBE, Head of Bayer Cares Foundations

We believe in the game changing power of innovation – we support pioneers who apply tech innovations

to humanity’s biggest challenges around health and food. In 2018 we are scouting for startups, innovators,

and impact innovations particularly focused on agriculture and food production for our seed funding

programs and new book ‘The Beauty of Impact – Food’. We are searching for innovations that solve the

food crisis and other global grand health-related challenges that we can promote and fund to bring to the

rising billions in need around the world.

Seeking funding yourself for a crazy ‘Innovation-4-Food’ idea?

Impromptu Pitch, Seeds&Chips, May 10 from 2-4 pm @ AHK German Italian Chamber of Commerce

Pavilion Bayer Booth

The next opportunity to meet the Foundation’s CEO - ThimoV. Schmitt-Lord, and UN SDG Advocate, Expert

Network World Economic Forum, Open Innovation Advisor and Speaker - Marc Buckley is at

Seeds & Chips, Milan, May 7th-10th

rganised by Knowledge4Innovation

(K4I), and held at the European

Parliament in Brussels, it has frmly

established itself as the continent’s premier

cross-sectoral industry and policy event.

In 2017, lively debate sessions at EIS

focused on the impact and opportunities

being created by global innovation

megatrends, including artifcial intelligence,

big data, the bioeconomy, megacities,

regenerative medicine and cybersecurity.

The summit also included the launch

of the new EU Top 50 initiative for young

innovators. Serial pioneer, Bertrand Piccard,

co-founder and CEO of the Solar Impulse

Foundation was the keynote speaker. He

European Innovation

Summit turns 10 in

November

The annual European Innovation

Summit (EIS) will celebrate its tenth

anniversary this year.

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