RestartApp, from fermented drinks to “digital” agriculture, up to eco-camping: the best ideas for a present that is already the future

Dreams represent the hope of a better future for the new generations, but they are the beginning of a journey: passion alone is not enough, because ideas must materialize into possible and concrete(izable) projects.

Three young entrepreneurs – Greta Manfrin, Liliana Graniero and Andrea Di Domenico – succeeded, and were the winners of the project RestartApppromoted by the Edoardo Garrone Foundation in collaboration with the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.

Thanks to the campus, a ten-week incubator organized in Sassello in the Beigua park, in Liguria, for intensive training, they managed to develop their business plans and were awarded respectively 30 thousand euros, 20 thousand and 10 thousand to implement the their businesses.

Ideas that are always the result of an innovative and sustainable vision, like that of Greta Manfrin who decided to leave his city, Milan, to move to Borgo Val di Taro, in the province of Parma, to create together with his partner a laboratory for the production of fermented foods and drinks, with the curious name «Bollae – let's ferment emotions», using local and seasonal ingredients, many of spontaneous origin, enhancing the biodiversity of the area, to experience the place from a gastronomic point of view. You can thus sip the kombuchaoriental tea-based drink or try the miso, a condiment widely used in the East. And that's not all: in the near future there will also be a convivial dining room to share tastes and new knowledge.

Liliana Graniero he thought instead of revolutionize home farming using digital toolsfocusing on the seeds and not on the plants with the use of paper sown with «Green Framework»a solution for creating small vegetable patches and gardens in a simple way.

The third prize winner, Andrea Di Domenicofocused on its territory, the small municipality of Pescosansonescoin the Gran Sasso Park, with «Petra eco-camping» the starting point for promoting activities linked to the geographical characteristics of the area, such as sport climbing, not surprisingly also his passion. One way to develop the local circular economy. But his dreams don't end here: his ambition is to organize a real climbing festival.

Completely different ideas, which suggest others, to enhance the Apennine areas of our country, less known than the crowded tourist routes, at the center of Overtourism: «After 10 years, 12 campuses built in different mountain locations, 150 aspiring entrepreneurs supported with the our training and around 60 businesses helped to be born and grow in the Apennine territories throughout Italy – he commented Alessandro Garronepresident of the Edoardo Garrone Foundation – with a total investment on our part of 4 million euros, we continue to bet on the dreams, projects and skills of young people, contributors to the ecological transition and protagonists of the relaunch of the internal areas of our country”.

A project aimed at the new generations who find themselves having to face a particularly complex period in our society, subject to rapid and difficult to interpret change: «The entrepreneurial ideas of young people, their awareness of the great challenges of the future and their commitment to the territory are a fundamental driver to accelerate innovation, understood as a driver of sustainable development”, commented Alberto Anfossi, General Secretary of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.

The next edition of ReStartApp will be organized by the Edoardo Garrone Foundation in Abruzzo, in L'Aquila and for this year's call for ideas you have until April 24th.