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These semi-finalists are competing for grants of up to $300,000, along with dedicated technical assistance and acceleration support delivered by Civitta to guide implementation in Georgia, Moldova, and Türkiye. The winners will move into the implementation phase, deploying ready-to-scale solutions designed to address pollution and protect the health of the Black Sea and its coastal communities.
MARLIN-BS is a data-driven framework for detecting, coordinating, and transparently reporting marine litter cleanup across the Black Sea. The project combines Earth Observation satellite data, AI-based hotspot detection, a digital intervention portal, and blockchain traceability to turn marine litter intelligence into targeted, verifiable action.
The project aims to design, build and test a network of three smart buoys equipped with innovative real-time water quality monitoring sensors to create an early pollution warning system and digital water quality intelligence for coastal communities, municipalities and local stakeholder engagement.
Bioclean is an eco-innovative marine oil spill absorbent developed from Verbascum plant fibers. The solution provides high oil absorption capacity, hydrophobic performance, and biodegradability, offering a sustainable alternative to synthetic sorbents. It aims to reduce marine pollution while supporting circular economy and nature-based solutions in the Black Sea region.
Agricultural Agentic AI Robot is an autonomous ground-based robotic platform that uses multi-agent artificial intelligence, advanced sensors, and computer vision to enable precision, sustainable agriculture. It performs continuous field monitoring, plant-level data collection, and targeted interventions, significantly reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
Noria wants to deploy the CanalCleaner, a passive, energy-free system that intercepts floating plastic waste in urban waterways before it reaches the Black Sea, starting with implementation and research in Turkey. Proven in multiple Dutch cities, the system operates without electricity, has minimal ecological impact, and captures both micro- and macro-litter close to the source.
We are an engineering company developing practical, nature-based solutions for cleaner water. BioReactor is our modular floating wetland system that combines native aquatic plants with engineered biofiltration to reduce excess nutrients and other pollutants. In addition, we offer a monitoring solution that tracks key water quality parameters and treatment performance.
The EPSE™ Method, our eco-innovation, enables effective prevention of hazardous industrial pollution at source while reducing energy use, waste generation, and treatment complexity compared to conventional heavy-metal removal technologies. By simplifying, we generate value, and in the project we are taking the first steps towards bringing the value to life in the Black Sea region.
BioNova is an agritech/cleantech startup developing next-generation smart biogas systems that convert livestock waste into renewable energy and organic biofertilizer. Our solution enables farmers to reduce emissions, lower energy costs, and improve waste management through circular agriculture. By turning waste into value, BioNova supports climate resilience and sustainable development across the Black Sea region.
Our initiative is building Georgia's first coordinated soil-moisture and temperature monitoring network using weather stations and Sentek probes to provide real-time, layered data on water movement and storage. By integrating these measurements into the Agrodat Georgia digital platform, we enable farmers to move beyond "blind" irrigation and over-fertilization, directly reducing nutrient leaching into aquifers and the Black Sea.
Project MARINER introduces a nature-based solution to confront Black Sea eutrophication by intercepting and valorizing nutrient-rich drain waters from soilless farms at its source. Building on an award-winning Zero Waste foundation, the innovation transforms nutrient liabilities into high-value biostimulants and soil amendments. These regenerative solutions strengthen climate-smart agriculture and restore the marine ecosystem through a scalable, modular, and zero-liquid-discharge system.
The project establishes Moldova’s first nationwide soil moisture and temperature monitoring network, integrated into the digital platform Agrodat.md. By combining real-time soil data with analytics and AI-based recommendations, the project supports precise fertilization and water management. The solution reduces nutrient leaching, agricultural runoff, and pollution while improving soil health and farm productivity.
Upwater® is a field-tested digital service that empowers wastewater treatment plants to optimize operations, improve environmental compliance and reduce energy and chemical use through predictive simulation and decision-support intelligence. Built on more than 30 years of research in wastewater process modelling, the platform combines physics-based and data-driven models to optimize biological, chemical, and physical processes without requiring new infrastructure or extensive sensor networks.
SOLARIFY Solar ZLD is a wastewater treatment system combining proprietary solar thermal technology with Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) processes to eliminate liquid waste discharge entirely. The system uses concentrated solar heat to evaporate high-salinity wastewater, recovering purified water for reuse while crystallizing dissolved solids for safe disposal or commercial recovery.
A Zero-Waste Solution for Black Sea Eutrophication Control. Our innovation is a scientifically validated, closed-loop system designed to combat eutrophication, the leading cause of environmental degradation in the Black Sea, by directly targeting agricultural nutrient runoff. The solution leverages our proprietary, highly-efficient modified zeolite media, a technology developed and rigorously tested through years of specialized university research and peer-reviewed publications in adsorption science
PlanetCare's self-cleaning commercial microfiber filter represents a breakthrough solution to one of the Black Sea's most insidious pollution challenges: microplastic fibers from textile washing. Our patented technology captures up to 98% of microplastic fibers before they enter wastewater systems and ultimately the Black Sea ecosystem.
DRONEQUBE is a platform that manages autonomous drones and robots to monitor and protect crop health using AI. We deliver time-efficient and cost-effective treatments, helping vineyard owners detect and address issues early, improving yields and sustainability through precision interventions.
Reducing Agricultural Runoff in the Black Sea Basin through AI-Based Fertilizer Optimization and Chemical-Free Weed Control is an eco-innovation that reduces nutrient runoff and chemical pollution at source. The solution combines AI-driven fertilizer optimization with precision and mechanical weed control to improve nitrogen efficiency, reduce input use, and protect soil and water ecosystems.
This project develops an AI-driven, satellite-based early warning and monitoring system for the detection of mucilage (marine snow) in the Black Sea Basin. By integrating multispectral Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 data with a novel lightweight deep learning architecture and mucilage-specific spectral indices, the system enables accurate, continuous, and large-scale monitoring under dynamic marine conditions.
“Blueing Sakarya with S.M.A.R.T. Solutions” is a unique “Sakarya Smart Basin Management Model” developed to prevent agricultural and chemical pollution transported from the Sakarya River Basin to the Black Sea. Unlike traditional methods that focus solely on cleaning up pollution, this solution is a comprehensive ecosystem that detects pollution at its source, manages it digitally, purifies it naturally, and prevents it through education, using a “From Source to Sea” approach.
GB Ocean has developed a fast and user‑friendly oil spill response system that attaches directly to ship hulls and quays via our patented rolling magnetic connectors, allowing effective containment with only short boom segments. Proven and verified in collaboration with the Norwegian Coastal Administration (TRL 8) and already commercially deployed in Norway, the system provides immediate first response capability until larger resources arrive.
Georgia is piloting its first autonomous eco-intelligence platform to predict, monitor, and prevent aquatic pollution and microplastics from entering the Black Sea. Installed at the mouth of the Pichori River, the solar-powered floating system combines real-time water quality monitoring, predictive analytics, and physical waste interception. The project provides early-warning alerts and decision-grade data while offering a scalable, low-impact model for river and coastal pollution control across the Black Sea Basin.
BioCastle's SBP technology allows the biological purification of any kind of water body with minimal capital investments. It is a perfect add on to existing treatment plants to enhance their capacity and increase treatment performance to reduce the outflow of contaminants into the Black Sea.
Pilot implementation of the "Plasma-C" plasma-sorption technology for reagent-free, low-cost destruction of various types of wastewater on the territory of Georgia, with the aim of reducing the environmental load on the Black Sea basin. Plasma-C is a modular, resource-efficient installation for deep purification and disinfection of contaminated water, based on the unique synergy of three physical methods: Quasi-stationary volumetric micro-bubble plasma (QVMP), acoustic-vortex impact, and hydrodynamic cavitation.
SWIM is an innovative solution for smart monitoring of Black Sea coastal waters. By combining autonomous platforms, spectral analysis, and digital mapping, SWIM enables early detection of pollution and promotes sustainable management of vulnerable coastal ecosystems, with pilot relevance for the Georgian Black Sea coast.
The project addresses heavy-metal pollution in the Bîc River, a major tributary of the Dniester, which degrades water quality, aquatic biodiversity, and contributes pollutants to the Black Sea basin. It proposes an eco-innovative, nature-based solution using adaptive phytoremediation with native emergent plant species to capture and reduce heavy metals in water.