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MEDWISE

Mediterranean Waste Innovations for Sustainable Environments
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Classification: 
international research
Programme: 
Other UE programmes
Call: 
Interreg NEXT MED Programme (2021–2027)
Main ERC field: 
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Unict role: 
Coordinator
Duration (months): 
36
Start date: 
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
End date: 
Saturday, July 15, 2028
Total cost: 
€ 2.491.900,00
Unict cost: 
€ 370.000,00
Coordinator: 
Università di Catania
Principal investigator in Unict: 
Prof. Giuseppe Mancini
University department involved: 
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
Participants: 
  • Universitat de Vic
  • Universitat Central de Catalunya (Spagna)
  • Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (Italia)
  • American University of Beirut (Libano)
  • EDAMA Association for Energy, Water, Environment (Giordania)
  • Muğla Sıtkı Koçman Üniversitesi (Turchia)
  • Leaders International Organization (Palestina)

Abstract

The Mediterranean grapples with waste management issues, with most municipal waste ending up in landfills untreated. Organic waste, a major component and a valuable source of energy and nutrients, is often contaminated, rendering it inadequate for use. Although a circular economy is needed to address this, the region faces inconsistent variations in legislative, technical, and funding gaps that hinder the implementation of circular strategies.

In response to this context, the MedWISE project aims to accelerate the transition to a circular, resource-efficient economy within the region through proven-efficient solutions. The project will optimize organic resource management using two main strategies: enhancing cross-border testing of innovative technological resource efficiency solutions and increasing transnational knowledge sharing of technologies through a triple helix approach.

Specifically, 3 types of innovations (industrial symbiosis, AI-powered sorting at the source, and decentralized composting) will be mapped and piloted, enhancing parallelisms between northern and southern contexts.