Grupo Gimeno fosters synergies between the academic and business worlds through the 'make it circular' challenge of the LAB Foundation

LAB Foundation Mediterráneo, a project promoted by the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE), has organized together with the Universitat Jaume I, the day 'Challenge the future: make it circular'.

Grupo Gimeno participated in this event, which brought together large companies from the Valencian Community with more than 60 university students from the Valencian Community with the aim of finding innovative solutions to future challenges and promoting collaboration between the academic and business worlds.

During the day, Myriam Gimeno, CEO of Gimeno GroupGuillermo Berlanga, the company's Innovation Director, and Ana Gutierrez, Head of Continuous Improvement and Corporate Innovation, have offered their support to the participants. Furthermore, Guillermo Berlanga and Ana Gutierrez have acted as mentors to working groups, guiding them in the design of a circular economy measurement system and its corresponding indicators, which will allow companies to highlight their efforts.

To contextualize the challenge presented to the students, Guillermo Berlanga from Grupo Gimeno, Ignacio Bauset from Aquaservice, and Héctor Dominguis from GDES shared their experiences with the circular economy in their respective companies. Berlanga emphasized the importance of circularity for the society of the future and explained the work his company does in this area, for example, in waste management and the water cycle.

The students have been organized into nine working teams that took their name from the main components of clean air and have worked on the challenge from three different approaches: the economic, social and environmental impact, each one solved by three teams.

After the jury's deliberation, the awards ceremony took place and the Cripton team, mentored by the Innovation Director of Grupo Gimeno, was the winner and received a cash prize, double tickets to Aquarama and an immersion session on innovation and circular economy at Grupo Gimeno.

Myriam Gimeno is a member of the Executive Committee of the LAB Mediterráneo Foundation, which was created with the mission of positioning the Valencian Community as a national and European leader in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, and research. Other entities that, like the Gimeno Group, are part of the foundation's board of trustees also participated in the event, including CaixaBank, Nunsys, Aquaservice, Logifruit, and Lanzadera, among others.